NURSES OF RMS MOOLTAN

On 12 June 1917 the Royal Mail Steamer Mooltan left Australia with a contingent of newly enlisted nurses bound for Egypt. Some of the nurses boarded another ship in Egypt which transported them to the Imperial General Canvas Tent Hospitals at Salonica in Greece. The Mooltan then sailed for India with 300 more nurses aboard. That was when it was attacked and sunk by an enemy submarine near the Suez Canal.

All of the nurses were rescued from the sinking RMS Mooltan by two escorting Japanese destroyers the Kusonoki and the Ume , which also tried unsuccessfully to sink the German submarine. Remarkably, the newspapers of the time recorded more information about the mail lost aboard the RMS Mooltan than those who were rescued or the two people killed in the sinking.

Australian Army Nursing Service Staff Nurse Kathleen Margaret Murray sailed aboard the RMS Mooltan. As did fellow nursing sisters May Hennessy, Maud Margaret Lloyd and Elizabeth Letitia Rosa Holland.

• Nurse Kathleen Murray eventually returned to Australia and in 1934 went to Papua New Guinea where she caught malaria and became an invalid.
• Sister May Hennessey returned to Australia critically ill with malaria and kidney failure. An urgent telegram was sent to her family advising them to meet her at a private hospital in Geelong. She died there and is buried in Bendigo.
• Sister Maud Lloyd suffered from Spanish influenza while at Salonica and was treated in England before returning to Greece. Shortly after the Armistice she left for England and married her sweetheart.
• Sister Elizabeth Holland returned safely to Australia in March 1919 aboard the Wandilla. Unfortunately there are no details of her post-war life.

Australia’s nurses are remembered at the Army Museum in Bandiana through displays on the history of the Australian Army Nursing Corps.