Who were the local hospital staff that participated in WW1?

Marilyn Jensen is a dedicated researcher and retired nurse

Our recent local history talk was conducted by Marilyn Jensen. She honoured past employees of the Maryborough General and Lady Musgrave hospitals who enlisted during WW1, including one with a connection to the Hospital Ship Maheno.

Maryborough has a hidden treasure in the Wide Bay Hospitals Museum , which displays items and documents relating to Maryborough's early hospitals.
 Included are those :
-  dating from the 1850s
-  from the first purpose built public hospital in 1865
- relating to the current hospital from 1887
- from the early maternity services and maternity hospitals, first built in 1888

Marilyn joined the small group of enthusiastic volunteers running the Museum when she retired from the nursing workforce in 2013. To her it was an obvious transition after over 40 years of nursing.

"The instruments are similar to or are the ones I used early in my career" she recollects.
"I've worked within our local public health system for so long that I sometimes feel I am a museum piece" she joked. "When you are an active member of the healthcare team, you don't really appreciated the wealth of history in our hospitals because you are so involved in present day activities" she said.  

 

Marilyn has a keen interest in history and research activities, particularly related to nursing and health care. Some of Marilyn's interest resulted from her mother Joyce Volker's influence. 
"She was a great family historian and an active participant in many organisations" Marilyn reflects. 
Marilyn grew up listening to stories about these and the family, who were pioneers in the Mackay area.   Research skills gained whilst nursing and completing post graduate university studies provided Marilyn with the expertise to match this interest.

"I believe that when we know our history we are more aware of the changes within our society. This gives us a connection to the past and helps us appreciate the enormous changes that have occurred, as well as building a little respect for our predecessors" she enthused.

Hospitals Museum display showing the Gallipoli Peninsula and the nearby Island of Lemnos from the perspective of the medical and nursing management of the wounded/sick soldiers

  

The members of the Hospitals Museum wished to acknowledge any past hospital staff who served during WW1, as part of the events leading up to the centenary of ANZACS landing at Gallipoli. They also wanted to have a display focussing on the medical and nursing management of the soldiers during the war and more importantly during the Gallipoli campaign. This display was available at the museum during April and May and was shown at the Fraser Coast Show, with favourable feedback. Both Marilyn and the museum's secretary, Dell York, worked tirelessly to produce the displays, with the support and encouragement of other members.




Hospitals Museum display depicting the injured soldiers
path to treatment during WW1
 

Hospitals Museum display depicting some of the medical
items similar to those used during WW1

With little information on staff employed in the early 1900s found in the hospital records held by the museum, a wider search was undertaken to identify the past staff who served.

The search revealed 17 past staff

• 12 nurses
• three doctors
• a wardsman and
• the hospital secretary.

Some of the nurses found had undertaken their general nursing and/or midwifery training at the hospitals. 

 

Marilyn getting ready for her presentation at the Maryborough Library

 

Do you know anybody who worked at  the  hospital at this time?

  

This is the list collated so far:On staff when enlisted:

 On staff when enlisted:

CORFIELD, Agnes Beryl (Nurse)

 FOLLIT, Harold Harry Bailly (Doctor)

 GARDE, Henry Croker (Doctor)

 HARTE, Katherine (Nurse)

 HATTON, James Edward (EJ) (Hospital Secretary)

 JACKSON, Ethel Mary (Nurse)

 McKAY, Arthur Adrian (Doctor)

 TAMBLYN, Jeremiah (Jerry) (Hospital Orderly/Wardsman)

 On staff prior to WW1 or had association with the Hospitals prior to enlistment:

 AXELSEN, Ida Maree (Nurse, trained MGH)

 BARRON, Ellen (Nurse)

 GRAHAM, Florence (Nurse)

 HARROD, Alice Mabel Valentine (Nurse, trained Midwifery LMH)

 HORSWILL, Valetta Applin (Nurse)

 MARTIN, Elizabeth Rose (Nurse, trained MGH)

 McGANN, Susannah Josephine (Nurse, trained MGH & LMH)

 MORETON, Beatrice Lillian  (Nurse)

 POLLOCK, Louisa (Nurse)

 

If you want to find out any more information about this fascinating aspect of Maryborough's past the Wide Bay Hospitals Museum Inc. is on on the corner  of 36 Yaralla Street and Walker Street, Maryborough (in the Hospital grounds, entrance via Yaralla Street). It is open Thursdays 9.00 am to 12.00 pm or by appointment and entry is by gold coin donation.

Contacts:

President. Marilyn Jensen 0416213479
Secretary. Dell York 41283991

Published with consent from Marilyn Jensen.

Tags #Maryboroughlibrary #Frasercoastlibraries #Maryborough #

Ken Brooks - a local historian with diverse interests

Ken Brooks is a well known and respected historian

Ken Brooks is a well-known and active Maryborough historian.  His interest in Brennan &Geraghty’s store started after he moved into the cottage next door in the mid-1980s. “I became further involved with the store when conservation works began in about 1988/89. At that time I was only involved in a small way but as the years went on, I became more involved with every aspect of the place”, Ken reflects.

 Ken became involved with Australian history in general as a small boy visiting historic properties in Sydney and then Melbourne.  He became involved with the National Trust in Victoria after they purchased the historic property Labassa.  He worked on this property with the Young Trust in some initial clean-ups, removing debris and old roofing material from the ceiling cavity. Ken said “I had a passion for grand structures but as time went on I got to enjoy working class buildings and the social history that went with them.”

His current organisation started when the National Trust purchased, what was then known as Geraghty's Store, in 1975. The store opened as a museum about itself and its place in the community of Maryborough in November, 1990.

 Ken has used this store as a basis for a lot of history research on local families which led to historical research on a wider scale. Ken explained, “I research a lot about people, the things they did and the history of their lives. I am currently researching for an exhibition titled War Time Shopping.”

Ken works together with a number of volunteers on different projects.  The War Time Shopping Exhibition has the volunteers and Ken sourcing material from the original Brennan & Geraghty ledgers as well as from trade magazines and newspaper articles. They are researching to see if people during the First World War were buying fewer products than they were prior to the war. The exhibition will stretch through to the Second World War. This will provide some understanding of the imposed rationing and product shortages that affected what people had to eat.

 Ken claims “With digital technologies, we will be able to add our research to the web in attempts to draw people to visit the region and see the store where their ancestors may have shopped, this next twelve months will hopefully see us have some gains in this area.”

 Ken recently did a talk on the Historic Interiors Resource Centre. The National Trust established the Interiors Resource Centre in 1996 to document the moveable heritage culture associated with Queensland Interiors. In 2004, the National Trust relocated its Brisbane Head Office and subsequently needed a new home for the collection so it was moved to Maryborough. “I became more involved with Queensland Interiors when the National Trust moved its Interiors Resource Centre to be managed in conjunction with Brennan & Geraghty's Store Museum,” he remembered.

He started working on the interiors resource centre about eighteen years ago when he digitally photographed the objects and started the transfer of the information onto the National Trusts digital collections register. The collection holds examples of linoleums, wallpapers, textiles, craftworks, hardware and other items that went into furnishing and decorating homes.

 “I have a particular passion for stencilled finishes, there were a number of timber homes in Maryborough which had stencil decorated surfaces - these are slowly being lost as new trends in painting and decorating cover up old fashioned finishes. We hope to record some of them before it is too late.”

 Ken continued “We were donated a collection of ledgers that had belonged to the Popp family who had a furniture making factory where 4MB now stands. These ledgers help us to identify what kinds of furniture people were buying for their homes. We have started to index the ledgers so that they can eventually be used for public research.”

Volunteers are currently involved in various capacities. Some have specific interest in textiles, some work to digitally photograph the objects and others are involved with cataloguing the collection.

The Historic Interiors Resource Centre opens by appointment only by ringing (07) 4121 2250. It is also open as part of Maryborough Open House in September. “We are always seeking to add to the collection, we are particularly interested in acquiring tools used for wood grain and marbled finish effects,” Ken enthused.

Published with consent from Ken Brooks.

 Tags: #Maryboroughlibrary #Maryborough  #Qldheritagetourism #Frasercoastlibraries