Heroic Australian Women of War

by De Vries Susanna

In this inspiring book, Susanna de Vries profiles the love, dedication and selflessness of eleven outstanding women over the course of two world from Olive Kin, who saved countless lives in the war-ravaged Balkans, although she lost her heart; to Gallipoli nurse Alice Kitchen, who also served in France; to Vivian Bullwinkel, who survived the Bangka Island Massacre only to face more than three years watching her colleagues die as Japanese prisoners of war. Facing not only the astounding courage they displayed amid death and chaos but also on the triumphs and pain of their personal lives, Susanna reveals how these women were as influential and heroic in civil life as they were in war.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, War, Audiobook, Biography

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Debbie Robson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've done it again, cried in my local coffee shop whilst reading. This time it was the words of Matron Drummond as her and twenty nurses were executed by the Japanese at Bangka Island:
"Girls, I love you all and I'm proud of you. Walk into the water with your chins up. Don't be afraid." Yes, that finished me off. Definitely the words of an heroic woman!
Luckily for me I'm not researching Bangka Island and the Paradise Road nurses but the Scottish Womens Hospitals and our own Olive King who drove ambulances for them and the Serbian Army. De Vries has written a wonderful book and although I have only read the first two chapters it is highly recommended.It is not for the faint hearted though or for someone like me who is very thin-skinned and does a lot of her reading in coffee shops!

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps a better title would be Undeservedly Obscure Heroic Australian Women in War. I was astonished, as I moved from one chapter to the next in this wonderful book, to realise I'd never heard of any of these women. And yet their bravery, fortitude and resilience shines out from every page. In addition to discovering that these women fought in unusual theatres of war, it was a surprise to discover that small contingents of Australian troops were siphoned off to battlefields that are uniformly overlooked in general histories. For example, some engineers from Gallipoli were sent to Salonika to help the Serbs against the Austrians and groups of ruthless Bulgarian bandits who came into the war on the side of the Ottoman Turks. (p17)

Olive May Kelso King was the daughter of the wealthy businessman and philanthropist Kelso King. Before World War I broke out, she enjoyed rally driving - a difficult undertaking in the early days of motor racing with unpredictable car problems. Her unusual ability allowed her to pass the tests of the Allies Field Ambulance Corps and join their privately funded organisation. They could supply little other than uniforms but Olive had the funds to have a truck converted to an ambulance and so she first served in France, before applying to join the British Army as a driver. Turned down flat and told to go home and knit socks for the men, she looked for other avenues of service and discovered the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service who posted her to Salonika where Aussie engineers helped hoist her ambulance ashore and where it was explained to her that the men were building up the fortifications on the landward side of the city. This was November and more Anzacs arrived each day, shivering in their summer uniforms. (p24) Oliver fell foul of the moral standards of the SWH when she began a friendship that developed into a love affair with her liaison officer, Milan ("Yovi") Yovitchitch, of the Serb Army. Threatened with disciplinary action by the SWH, Olive was encouraged by Yovi to apply to join the Serb Army. She was to go on be awarded five medals by the Serbian king. Olive was not the only Australian serving in the region. Jessie McHardy White was a nurse who helped her on occasion.

Yovi was a staunch friend of Crown Prince Alexander and had long been betrothed to a teen relative of the royal family. Duty came before love and, though he never pretended otherwise, Olive hoped he might change his mind. He never did. On the rebound, she fell for Artsa, an illiterate peasant amongst the ambulance drivers, who expressed his undying love and admiration for her. When she expressed her intentions of marrying him, everyone from Serbian officers to her cousin Major Selwyn King, to Yovi himself put pressure on her to drop the engagement. When that put her back up, they turned the heat up on Artsa.

Olive never married. After the war, she was invited - along with her father and family - to the wedding of (now) King Alexander to Princess Marie of Rumania. There she met Yovi again for the last time. He was married with two children. He was killed when, during a state visit to France in 1934, he was riding in the same vehicle as King Alexander who was assassinated driving through Marseilles.

Featured in chapter 2 are Lillian Cooper and Agnes Bennett. Determined to be a surgeon, Lillian found a loophole in the regulations which banned women from studying at the London School of Medicine: her qualifications in science and maths from the London Society of Apothecaries used the word "person" instead of "man". Once admitted, she qualified - but that didn't mean she could get a job in that male-dominated world.

Agnes Bennett commanded a field hospital of the SWH in Salonika, and worked along with Aussies Dr Jessie Scott and nurses Agnes Kerr, Caroline Reid, Florence Grylls, Robina Ross and Mary Stirling. (p84) Bennett had sailed from Australia, hoping to work in France but in Alexandria, Egypt, she had seen from the ship men from Gallipoli laid out in the blazing sun and she simply disembarked to help. When she eventually moved to help the Serbs, she met with Miles Franklin, one of the camp cooks in Ostrovo, who came down with malaria. Agnes Kerr died of it there. (p91) Returning to Australia after the war with medals and testimonials, she still could not get a job as a surgeon in Sydney, so she went to New Zealand. Eventually in her seventies, she worked for the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Burketown. (p94)

Chapter 3 features Alice Elizabeth Kitchen. She worked in Egypt, jeopardising her chances of promotion by complaining about the sub-standard meals sent by the contract caterer to the hospitals. The doctors in charge blamed the nurses for men leaving the wards at night to visit "The Wozzer" but the nurses felt they were not jailers. (p109) She also served in France. Because Australia did not issue medals at that time, she was only awarded the British Campaign and Service Medals and the Victory Medal.

Chapter 4 highlights Joice NanKivell Loch, a Queenslander, the recipient of 11 medals from Poland, Serbia, Greece, Romania and Britain. I find it astonishing I've never heard of such a decorated war veteran, who saved the lives of many Polish and Jewish children in Operation Pied Piper.

Joice NanKivell worked as a journalist and reviewer for a Melbourne newspaper and, after reviewing a controversial book about the horrors of Gallipoli, she met and married the author Sydney Loch. After the war they went to London and were commissioned to write a book on the Irish troubles. It incensed the IRA and they were advised to get as far from Britain as they could. They volunteered to work in Quaker-run refugee camps in Eastern Poland. They soon moved to help in another refugee camp in Thessalonika, and much later to Bucharest in Rumania. There they took charge of a camp of Polish refugees who had fled to a neutral country when Hitler invaded their own. They were helped by Father Ambrosius and by Countess Lushya, the sole survivor of an aristocratic Polish family. They came to the attention of King Carol II, a monarch with divided loyalties. He had both British and German relations and, in addition, his mistress was Magda Lupescu, a Jewish woman. He wanted to help the refugees but was concerned about what Hitler's reaction would be. He did not want an invasion. Because of assassinations of his opponents by the sinister and brutal Iron Guard, he ruled as a virtual dictator. (p161) Lushya persuaded them to fund the purchase of a printing press. It was to create forged exit visas for refugee Poles so they could leave and fight for Poland by making their way to England or Palestine or Cyprus. The Lochs donated it to the camp but did not inform the Quakers about its use. Extremely concerned about a refugee contingent in Czernowicz, they drove a fleet of lorries there and evacuated the people just a single day before the Russians invaded. The atrocities subsequently reported from Czernowicz indicated the rightfulness of their decision.

Joice was persuaded to act as a spy courier and deliver the funds for the escape from Hungary of a Jewish-Polish scientist needed for the Allied War Effort. It was a nerve-wracking flight because the only other passengers were high-ranking German officials.

Eventually there was no choice but to leave. King Carol was forced to abdicate in favour of his son and, with him gone, the tolerance for Jewish and Polish refugees would evaporate. The Lochs decided to make it look like Joice was taking a group of schoolchildren on an excursion across the Black Sea. They left Bucharest on 16 September 1940, the same day King Carol went into exile. This was fortunate because the Iron Guard was focussed on assassinating the king as he left in the train and seizing the gold they were sure he was stealing. The plot failed but only because the king had his own group of marksmen who spotted the assassins first. So the group of children at the train station set off for their outing without drawing suspicion. They made it to the Black Sea in time for the ferry crossing, but the captain was ordered back by the Iron Guard. Joice was terrified for herself and children, particularly the Jewish ones. However, it turned out the Iron Guard was interested in the cargo, not the passengers. King Carol hadn't taken the gold by train, he sent it by ferry. When they reached Istanbul, they were shown the sights including the 'gilded cage' where the sons of sultans were kept to prevent them being poisoned and where some went mad as a result. After many difficulties and troubles, Joice was able to take the children to Haifa and to the large Jewish-Rumanian settlement there. At one point, she was so desperate that, although she was not religious, she entered a Greek Orthodox church to pray for a miracle. (p186) The next day a British ship arrived with a crew dedicated to helping refugees escape the Nazis.

Chapter 5 spotlights the "Paradise Road" nurses including Sylvia Muir, Joyce Tweddell, Vivian Bullwinkel and Betty Jeffrey. The final chapter details the lives of two missionary nurses martyred in PNG - Frances Hayman and Mavis Parkinson.

[Pierke Bosschieter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very, very moving.

[Hazel Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susanna de Vries makes history accessible for mainstream readers. This collection includes well known nurses like Sister Vivian Bullwinkle but also others
like Olive King.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read war histories rather often, and I have visited the Australian War Memorial a few times. Other than Vivian Bullwinkle, I had not heard of these incredible women nor their heartbreaking stories. These heroic women had battles that the men around them could not have understood, fought biases and sexism when all they wanted is to help the men on the front, and had to see the same horrors that the soldiers had to as well. The fact that their names are so oft forgotten, and our government at the time seemed so reluctant to recognise their efforts.
De Vries writes so passionately, compassionately, openly about such horrible truths. She doesn't glorify, glamourise or include gruesome detail about what the women went through. The stories aren't used for shock value, aren't used to sicken you. They're frustrating, horrifying and saddening by their nature, but she isn't writing a horror story. She's written a heroic biography starring these women who should make all Australians proud to be Aussie.

[Judy French · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite amazing to hear of such strong, heroic Australian women. Other than forgoing their own safety to help others, they often gave their finances to help others eg. Olive buying and funding the ambulance she used. So incredibly selfless and so good that we have tributes to these heroes - I hope our history is not erased by flippant name changes. We spent time at the Royal Brisbane Hospital so was great to learn about Joyce Twedell, with a building at the hospital named after her. I was annoyed at the Qld Labour government changing the name of Lady Cilento Hospital to Brisbane children's hospital - erasing history and respect

[Tracey Cotton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susanna De Vries masterfully brings to life the untold stories of courageous women who made extraordinary contributions and sacrifices during the First and Second World Wars. Through her meticulous research and compassionate storytelling, she reminds us not only of the immense challenges women have faced throughout history but also of their unwavering strength and resilience.

Sometimes, we need to be reminded just how difficult the path has been — and how incredibly tough women can be. Thank you, Susanna, for shining a light on these remarkable lives and ensuring their legacies are never forgotten.

[Goldenwattle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of women at war, as nurses and in other occupations, and as prisoners of war. The nurses and others working in other jobs such as ambulance drivers make me feel inadequate. They are such amazing women.
The women who were prisoners of war with the Japanese, went through horrors.
Very worth reading.

[Diane Lester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes we just need to be reminded how difficult it has been for women throughout history. This book reminds us about that. Susanna De Vies tells us about women who volunteered their time, their own money and sometimes their lives to help others. Thanks Susanna for reminding us how tough it has been for women but how tough women can be.

[Nine Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fabulous account of real women and real lives. Their stories had me full of admiration one moment and emotional the next. Extensive historical research is apparent. Susanna De Vries masterfully relates the lives of women that made a significant contribution and sacrifice during the First and Second World Wars.

[Beth Lusk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this book informative and an easy read. Taken from a mix of journal entries/letters and interviews towards the end of these ladies lives. Just amazing the resilience of these Aussie woman.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Heroic Australian Women in War, by Susanna de Vries, narrated by Beverly Dunn, produced by Bolinda Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

De Vries picks eleven brave Australian women to describe the influence Australian women had in civil life as well as when the country was at war. Some of them were nurses who made untold sacrifices to save the soldiers they were nursing. One woman spent the war getting children of Jews out of Europe and safely to Palestine, Some nurses were part of the contingent held by the Japanese in Sumatra. These stories not only tell us what these women did during the war, but tell us what happened to them afterward. Most of them had serious health conditions brought on by the war. The ones from the prison camp never really came back to good health as they lived on starvation diets similar to those faced by holocaust victims. Also, several of them did not get the recognition during their lives that they deserved for their bravery.

[Any Length · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have gained a new respect for the men and women in the war. Their efforts, their struggles, their suffering. I have also realised what great suffering the soldiers at Gallipoli had to suffer. A battle that should not have ever been attempted. The people responsible had no idea what a horrendous situation they were sending their men into. And even when told were too pigheaded to admit their mistake. The treatment of nurses during the wars was also appalling. I was fuming at times about the outdated treatment women received and how they were supressed by their fellow men. I have learnt a great deal from this book.

[Chloe Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible book. we often hear or read stories of the tragedies that happened to the soldiers and men at war but not so much from the women's side even though their ordeals where equally as horrific as the men's. The author has done a great job of telling the women's stories