Two Goulburn nurses went to WWI with the first convoy of troops. They were both at Gallipoli and survived the war and returned to Goulburn to continue their nursing professions here.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Alice Twynam
Alice Joan Twynam was well know in Goulburn because her parents, Edward and Emily Twynam, owned Riversdale Estate.
She trained in Sydney as a nurse from 1906 to 1909 and she later became one of the first bush nurses in Australia. She did much of her bush nursing in the snowy mountains, a very isolated area in the early 1900’s.
When WWI was declared, Miss Twynam, then 31, enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service, and was one of the first 25 nurses to be sent overseas, leaving on October 20, 2014. She was working in a hospital in Cairo when the Gallipoli landings commenced, but soon found herself working on the hospital ship Gascon, off the beach at Gallipoli, where she remained until the evacuation in December, 1915.
Ms Twynam must have seen, and treated, the worst of the casualties of the battlefield. The ship worked around the clock in difficult conditions to stabilise casualties before sending them on to the hospitals of Egypt. For her courageous work, she was “Mentioned in Dispatches” in 1916.
She then went on to France and Flanders, following the ANZACs through every battle. Again, working just behind the battle lines, she treated the ill and wounded for the rest of the war.
Miss Twynam returned to Australia in in April,1919. For her services she received the Royal Red Cross (First Class) from the Prince of Wales at Government House, Sydney.
She spent the rest of her life in the Goulburn Region, much of it at Riversdale, where she often cared for disabled soldiers and their children. She was a well-known and friendly face in the Goulburn community. It has been said that she was one of the slowest drivers in Goulburn, often seen with a line of cars behind her on the main street. Apparently, that did not prevent her from running her car into the pastor’s car when she was late for church one Sunday morning. She passed away in 1967, in the same year the National Trust purchased Riversdale.
Bill Duffy
William (Bill) Edward Duffy was another one of the first to answer the call to arms.
He sailed in the first convoy in November,1914 with a bunch of his fellow male nurses from Kenmore Hospital.
He went to Gallipoli and then followed the First Australian Imperial Force throughout the war, serving variously with Field Ambulance Units as well as field and general hospitals.
Mr Duffy spent a lot of his time dealing with the illnesses and physical wounds the men received in the trenches. He also dealt with the mental health issues of hundreds of men, who suffered the stress of long periods of time under fire and seeing the their mates killed in action.
Life as a nurse in a Field Ambulance was not easy. There was always too much to do with not enough men or equipment and the risks of being killed or injured by shell fire was high.
He spent the last years of the war in England treating the increasing numbers of shell shocked Australians from the front.
Mr Duffy went back to work at Kenmore Hospital, where he married another nurse. The the experience he gained in WWI would have stood him in good stead as he nursed soldiers from WWII. He was Goulburn’s last ANZAC, passing away in 1982.
Alice Twynam and Bill Duffy were as much combatants as those who threw themselves out of the trenches with bayonets fixed.
They experienced the full, true, horror of war. They also had the harrowing task of trying to repair those soldiers, shattered of body and mind, who did not make it through the many battles of the war.
The sacrifice of the ANZACS allows us to live the lives we live today. Alice Twynam and Bill Duffy used surgical instruments on a daily basis.
Goulburn Mulwaree Rotary’s donated of $20,000 to purchase an Anterior Cruciate Ligament instrument tray for the Base Hospital.
Surf Boat Crew’s trip
Thanks to the generosity of former Rotarian Paul Murphy of Military History Tours Australia, a unique opportunity was available to Goulburn district residents to participate as Surf Boat Crew and travel to Gallipoli in April, 2015.
A crew of nine men ranging from 17 to 56 trained weekly to hone their rowing skills and to maintain the fitness level required to compete against other surf boat crews representing Surf Life Saving Clubs from Australia, New Zealand and Turkey.
In the two days leading up to Anzac Day, 2015 the Goulburn crew participated in a 53km surf boat race, along with boats crewed by other Australian surf lifesavers and Turkish crew. The race began at the port of Eceabat, travelled south through the Dardanelles, passing through the Narrows at Canakkale, and down the line of artillery fortifications along the south-eastern coast of the Gallipoli peninsula.
Reaching the tip of the peninsula at Cape Helles the course turned north into the Aegean and headed up the north-western coastline of the Gallipoli peninsula to Anzac Cove and finished, out of respect for the hallowed ground there, not at Anzac Beach but slightly north at North Beach on the afternoon before Anzac Day.
As a mark of respect, the Surf Boat used by the Goulburn Crew prominently displayed the names of the 31 fallen Australian Diggers from the Goulburn District who were killed during the campaign.
The fundraising efforts of these nine local gents, the generosity of Paul Murphy and Military History Tours Australia, local sponsors, along with hundreds of volunteer hours from Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Goulburn Mulwaree enabled significant funds to be raised.
This money is now donated to community projects such as the donation of the recent ACL Tray to Goulburn Base Hospital.