Grace Margaret (Wilson) Campbell CBE RRC (1879 - 1957)

Born 25 Jun 1879 in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Ancestors

Wife of Robert Wallace Bruce Campbell — married 12 Jan 1954 in Wandsworth, London, England

Died 12 Jan 1957 at age 77 in Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

Grace (Wilson) Campbell CBE RRC is Notable.

Grace (Wilson) Campbell CBE RRC was born in the Colony of Queensland (1859-1900)

Grace Wilson CBE RRC was the highest-ranked nurse in the Australian Army during The Great War and the first years of the Second World War; from temporary matron-in-chief in AIF Headquarters, London, during the latter half of The Great War, to matron-in-chief of the AANS between the wars, to serving in the Middle East with the Second Australian Imperial Force at more than 60 years of age, to the Department of Manpower Directorate (Victoria)'s nursing control section.

Grace was a nurse

Grace Margaret Wilson ^[1] was born on 25th June 1879 in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. She was the eldest child of John Pearson Wilson, clerk, and his wife Fanny Campbell, née Lang, both Scottish born. Educated at Brisbane Girls' Grammar School, Grace entered Brisbane Hospital as a probationer in 1905 and gained her certificate in 1908. In London she trained in midwifery at Queen Charlotte's Lying-in Hospital before joining the staff of the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic (Albany Memorial).

The Great War

Grace (Wilson) Campbell CBE RRC is an Anzac who served in World War One.

Back in Queensland, she became matron of Brisbane Hospital in July 1914. Joining the Australian Army Nursing Service in October, she was appointed principal matron of the 1st Military District. On 15th April 1915 Grace transferred to the Australian Imperial Force (AIF); as principal matron of the 3rd Australian General Hospital (AGH), she embarked for England in May. The hospital was transferred to Lemnos to treat Anzac casualties; with her staff, she arrived there in early August to find conditions 'too awful for words'. . . . more . . adb.anu.edu
Her youngest brother, Graeme, had been killed in action at Gallipoli in the May. Early in 1916 the 3rd AGH was transferred to Abbassia, Egypt. She moved with the hospital to Brighton, England, in October, and to Abbeville, France, in April 1917.

After the 3rd AGH was dismantled in May 1919, she was posted to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford, Kent, before coming home to Queensland in January 1920. Her AIF appointment ended in April.

Grace was awarded the Royal Red Cross, 1st class, in May 1916 and appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 1st January 1919. She was Mentioned in Despatches on four occasions.

Between wars

As matron from November 1920 of the Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Wilson improved conditions for her nurses and succeeded in winning trainees a nominal wage. Openly critical of the hospital committee, she resigned two years later and bought a private hospital, Somerset House, in East Melbourne. Maintaining an interest in military nursing, Grace was appointed matron-in-chief of the army nursing reserve in August 1925. She was awarded the Florence Nightingale medal in 1929. In January 1933 she became matron of the Alfred Hospital.

Second World War

Grace (Wilson) Campbell CBE RRC is a Military Veteran.
Served in the 2nd Australian Imperial Force 1940-1941
Matron-in-Chief

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) was re-formed, as part of the Second Australian Imperial Force (2AIF) so that nurses could serve overseas. Grace was co-opted on 24th September 1940 as Matron-in-Chief. She also served on the staff of the Director-General of Medical Services, Major General Rupert Downes.^[2] Job done magnificently, and already past sixty years of age, Grace was discharged 30th September 1941. She was distraught at the news of the fall of Malaya, and then Singapore in February 1942, especially as word spread of the torture and murder of 41 of 'her' nurses and many patients by the Japanese.

Retirement!

Grace retired following the end of the Second World War, but continued to work on a voluntary basis for a number of organisations, including the Royal Victorian Trained Nurses' Association, Royal Victorian College of Nursing, Australian Red Cross Society and the Girl Guides' Association. In addition, she worked as a trustee for the Shrine of Remembrance and the Edith Cavell Trust Fund. In 1953, she became the first female life member of the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL). Several nursing organisations also awarded Grace their highest honours.

Grace married Bruce Campbell in Holy Trinity parish church, Roehampton, London on 12th January 1954.^[3]

Grace passed away, aged 77 years, on 12th June 1957 in the Repatriation General Hospital, Heidelberg, Victoria. She was subsequently accorded a funeral with full military honours at Christ Church in South Yarra. She was survived by her husband.

Grace Wilson medal set

People - LifeTree

• Evelyn Augusta Conyers CBE RRC (1870 - 1944)
• Anne Donnell (1875 - 1956)
• Janet Annie McDonald MBE (1885-1958)

Announced today the names of six returned army nurses who will form part of
the services Coronation Contingent. (1937, February 13). The West Australian
(Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), p. 18. Retrieved May 2, 2023

Sources

• De Vries, Susanna. Australian Heroines of World War One. Pirgos Press, Chapel Hill QLD, 2013.
• McCarthy, Janice. Wilson, Grace Margaret (1879–1957) Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,
  published first in hardcopy 1990; accessed online 13 May 2018 .
• Wikipedia profile: Grace Wilson; accessed 3 Mar 2019

1. ↑ Queensland Birth Index # 1879/B/25418
2. ↑ Australian War Memorial nominal roll: VFX38869 Matron (Major) Grace Margaret Wilson; accessed 3 Mar 2019
3. ↑ UK FreeBMD Marriage Index Mar qtr 1954, vol 5d, page 1645