In the lead up to ANZAC day tomorrow, we are looking back at members of our PLC Community who were involved in WWI, thanks to our PLC Archives. Sister May Ashton, aunt of Maisie Bloore (Watkins 1932), served as a nurse (AANS) during WWI. Born in Burton on Trent, England on 8 September 1879, she gained her nursing certificate over three years with Perth Public Hospital (now RPH). She worked for the Womens Hospital in Melbourne before opening Marsden, her own private hospital at 17 Ord Street, West Perth. She enlisted in January 1915 and was sent to nurse in Egypt, England and France. Her work was not without risk; she caught everything the troops came down with and was hospitalised with influenza in February 1916 in Heliopolis, Egypt and suffered with oedema of hands and broken chillblains in February 1917 in Rouen, France but was back with the 1st Australian General Hospital in France a month later. May was discharged at the end of WWI and returned to Australia on the Balmoral Castle in 1919. She continued nursing, lived a long and happy life and died on 1 October 1958, aged 79. - Images courtesy National Archives of Australia and Mays grand nephew Robert Bloore, son of Maisie Bloore (Watkins 1932).
Posted on: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 07:11:35 +0000
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