Dot Edis
Dot Edis | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Born | Margaret Dorothy Edis April 19, 1890 |
| Died | August 14, 1981 |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | nurse |
| Children | Reginald (adopted) |
Margaret Dorothy "Dot" Edis MBE (April 19, 1890 – August 14, 1981) was an Australian nurse who served in both World Wars. In 1965 she received the Red Cross's Florence Nightingale medal.
Life
[edit]Edis was born in Kyabram in 1890.[1]
She completed her initial training as a nurse at the end of 1914 in Kalgoorlie Hospital. In the following August she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service as a Staff Nurse before being sent as part of the Australian Imperial Force to an auxiliary hospital in Egypt. By April 1916 she was on the Western Front where she worked at the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station as well as both American and British hospitals caring for the wounded soldiers. She left the Australian Imperial Force in 1919 with the rank of sister, but she continued to care for soldiers who had returned from the war for the next five years.[2]
In the 1930s Edis began working for Head Matron Marion Walsh at the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women. She took further training in child care and midwifery. Walsh made her responsible for the post-natal ward and she became so enamoured with a baby, who was under developed, that she adopted Reginald as her own child.[2]
In May 1940 she and her nurses of the 2/3rd Australian General Hospital were in Perth awaiting to go abroad. In a group photograph she is seen wearing her medals.[3]
In 1948 she became the matron of a nursing home[2] which had been called the "Home of Peace for the Dying and Incurable" when it was established in 1902 in the suburb of Perth called Subiaco.[4] Edis declared the home to be unacceptable and she made an ultimatum to the management. Changes happened and she stayed for another eighteen years.[2]
Edis was honoured in 1954 when she was made an MBE and in 1965 she received the Red Cross's Florence Nightingale Medal.[2]
She died in Subiaco at the Home of Peace in 1981.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ Gare, Deborah, "Edis, Margaret Dorothy (Dot) (1890–1981)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, archived from the original on 2023-10-03, retrieved 2023-09-22
- ^ a b c d e f Gare, Deborah, "Edis, Margaret Dorothy (Dot) (1890–1981)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, archived from the original on 2023-10-03, retrieved 2023-09-22
- ^ "Collection related to the service of WX3318 Captain Jeanne Neste Willgress Freeman". www.awm.gov.au. Archived from the original on 2023-10-03. Retrieved 2023-09-22.
- ^ "inHerit - State Heritage Office". inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au. Archived from the original on 2023-10-03. Retrieved 2023-09-22.
External links
[edit]
- 1890 births
- 1981 deaths
- People from Victoria (state)
- Female wartime nurses
- Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire
- Florence Nightingale Medal recipients
- World War I nurses
- World War II nurses
- Australian military nurses
- Australian women nurses
- Female nurses in World War I
- Australian women of World War I
- Women in the Australian military
- Australian military personnel of World War I