General News
5 October, 2024
Veterans' Voices: Helen Grace Doyle
Helen Grace Doyle was born in Horsham in March 1887.
Her parents were Henry Doyle and Elizabeth Lyle (née Fraser) of Coombe Street, Collie, Western Australia.
Helen moved with her parents to WA in the gold rush period and lived in Subiaco, Perth, where she was an early pupil of the Subiaco School and where her father was elected mayor of the newly formed Subiaco municipality.
Later the family moved to the country.
Helen went to Kalgoorlie and in 1910 began her nursing training at the Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie hospitals.
She gained the general certificate in 1913 and was accepted for membership of the Australasian Trained Nursing Association.
At the outbreak of war in 1914, Helen (known as Nellie), who was a staff nurse at the Bunbury hospital, hastened to join the Australian Army Nursing Service.
Told by the army that there was a long waiting list, she decided to go to England at her own expense, sailing aboard Indarra to Adelaide on December 19 1914 and from there departing for England aboard SS Commonwealth.
She was accompanied by her friend Irene Dunne.
The pair arrived in the United Kingdom in January 1915.
Helen's hometown was recorded as Collie.
She worked at Coombe Lodge Axillary Military Hospital, Great Warley, Essex, from March 6 1915 until August 20 1915, then joined Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS).
After enlisting in London on August 23 Helen was immediately posted to France as a senior nurse.
Her service number was WO 399/2340 (WO 372/23/11940).
Helen served on the Western Front at No 2 General Hospital, Havre.
Helen also served at No 2 Stationary Hospital, 53 General Hospital and 74 General Hospital.
An appraisal stated: “Her professional ability is up to standard of rank.
"She is conscientious in carrying out her duties and looks after her patients well.
"Her powers of administration have improved of late, and her wards are better than they were at first.
"She possesses energy, self-reliance and a fair amount commonsense.
"She is punctual in the performance of her duties, has naturally a quick, hasty temper, but has worked well with rest of staff at this unit.
"Sister Doyle has not acted in a higher rank than that of a sister since being attached to this hospital and is not recommended for a higher rank.”
Helen nursed in field hospitals and in many theatres of war, including Ypres in Belgium.
She was admitted to hospital with the influenza on June 28 1918.
She was invalided to the UK as permanently unfit for duty in March 1919.
Helen sailed for Australia aboard Osterley on May 21 1919.
Her engagement was terminated on June 26 1919 due to her being permanently unfit for further military nursing service.
Her rank was sister.
Her last unit was QAIMNSR.
Helen had two brothers who also enlisted in World War I 1914-1918: Private Sidney Campbell, 2880, 16th Battalion, who returned to Australia; and Henry Wright, 3450, also of 16th Battalion, who was killed in action in Belgium on September 26 1917.
Civilian life
It appears that Helen worked for a while after the war with her friend Irene Dunne at Wooroloo Sanatorium and Kalgoorlie Hospital in WA.
Anxious to gain more experience Helen went to New Zealand in 1925.
There she gained her obstetric certificate at St Helen’s Hospital, Auckland, and a further certificate in child health and mothercraft at Dunedin under the Plunkett System directed by Dr Truby King.
Returning to Australia, Helen began her long service in board and departmental hospitals and remained in the nursing profession in WA until her retirement in 1959.
Her postings as a matron included in country hospitals such as Northcliffe, Margaret River, Narrogin, Albany, Busselton and Tambellup in the south of Big Bell, Sandstone district, Wiluna District, Northam Migrant and Geraldton Maternity, and she was a matron at Kiarma Private, Wembley.
The working conditions were not easy as the early years coincided with the depression and the latter years with World War II.
Even in retirement Helen was busy with many nursing interests and activities, including as a warden of the returned sisters' sub-branch of her local RSL and in the RSL corps of hospital visitors.
Another of her many interests was Subiaco Historical Society.
She was able to hang on to what she valued most: an independence of mind and body, and her indominable spirit.
Helen did not marry.
She died in Subiaco, aged 88, on January 22 1975 and her ashes we scattered.
She is commemorated in Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, WA, and on the Collie High School Roll of Honor.
With thanks: Sally Bertram, RSL Military History Library. Contact Sally at sj.bertram@hotmail.com or call 0409 351 940.