Staff Nurse Clarice Daley: One of the WW1 Nurses on Lemnos
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Staff Nurse Clarice Jessie Daley was one of the WW1 nurses who cared for the sick and wounded of the Gallipoli campaign on the Greek island of Lemnos. Born at Box Hill, Victoria, in 1889, she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service in May 1915 and embarked with No. 3 Australian General Hospital. On 21 October 1915, on Lemnos, she married Sergeant Ernest Alfred Lawrence of the 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade.
Her story is a small one beside the great battles of 1915. That is why it is worth telling. It shows what service looked like for the WW1 nurses who kept the men of Gallipoli alive, and what it could cost them, because women in WW1 lived by very different rules.
A nurse from Box Hill
The Australian War Memorial records Clarice Jessie Daley as born in 1889 at Box Hill, in Melbourne. Her final rank was Staff Nurse, and her unit was the Australian Army Nursing Service.
A 2014 profile by Jim Claven of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee adds more about her life before the war. It states that she completed three years of nursing training at Melbourne Hospital. By the time she enlisted, it says, her parents were living at Elwood.
WW1 nurses and the Australian Army Nursing Service
The Australian Army formed the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) in July 1903 as part of the Australian Army Medical Corps. Records show that 2,861 women in the AANS served overseas during the First World War, and 25 of them died during their service.
These WW1 nurses worked in many countries, including Belgium, Egypt, England, France, Greece and India. Like most working women of the time, they had to be unmarried. That rule would shape the rest of Clarice Daley's war.
Joining No. 3 Australian General Hospital
The Memorial's records give Clarice Daley's date of enlistment as 5 May 1915 and her date of embarkation as 18 May 1915. The First World War Embarkation Roll lists her as a Staff Nurse on the roll for 3 Australian General Hospital and Reinforcements, embarking at Melbourne on RMS Mooltan. You can read more about that ship in our earlier post, Nurses of RMS Mooltan.
No. 3 Australian General Hospital (3AGH) was destined for England and then Étaples in France. The Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) explains that on 1 July 1915 the unit was instead ordered to Lemnos, near Gallipoli. The nurses disembarked at Alexandria in Egypt between 30 July and 1 August, and on 2 August 1915 they sailed for Lemnos on the hospital ship HMHS Dunluce Castle.
Arriving on Lemnos in August 1915
The hospital site on Lemnos was pegged out by 7 August 1915. At about 7pm the next day, the first detachment of 40 nurses landed, and a piper accompanied them as they were marched to their new hospital. The hospital's main stores did not arrive until 20 August.
For the WW1 nurses of 3AGH, the wounded did not wait. Before breakfast on 9 August, more than 200 sick and wounded soldiers were admitted to 3AGH. Within a week, the nurses were caring for over 800 patients "in appalling conditions, without any equipment or supplies". Jim Claven's profile notes that wounded soldiers were arriving from the August Offensive on the peninsula.
The Lemnos Remembrance Trail states that around 2,860 AANS nurses served during the First World War, "some 130 serving on Lemnos". These WW1 nurses tended the sick and wounded at 3AGH and No. 2 Australian Stationary Hospital between August 1915 and January 1916. Matron Grace Wilson was responsible for the hospital's nursing staff.
A wedding at West Mudros
On Lemnos, Clarice Daley met again a man she already knew. The Memorial's caption for their wedding photograph says that she and Ernest Lawrence "had known each other in Melbourne but their match was not well regarded by Clarice's family". Ernest had enlisted in August 1914, "and much had been experienced by the time the two met again".
They were married on 21 October 1915 at Church Camp, Infantry Base Details (MEF), West Mudros, on the island of Lemnos. Their marriage certificate is hand drawn and written, and carries a one penny duty stamp. It is held today in the Memorial's Private Records collection.
Jim Claven's profile names Matron Grace Wilson and fellow nurses Beulah McMinn and Mary McIlroy among those in attendance, and says they signed the marriage certificate as witnesses. Army Chaplain Charles Winter officiated. The profile also states that, although Army regulations did not allow married nurses, she was not discharged immediately and continued to serve until the hospitals were evacuated from Lemnos.
Leaving Lemnos and coming home
In early January 1916, 3AGH and No. 2 Australian Stationary Hospital began emptying their wards and sailed for Egypt. The Memorial records Clarice Daley's date of return to Australia as 8 February 1916. The wedding photograph caption puts it simply: "In February 1916 Jessie returned to Australia, and was discharged in July, presumably because she was now married."
3AGH itself went on to Brighton in England and then Abbeville in France, where it remained until 1919. Clarice Daley was by then back in Australia. For more on the island after the campaign, see our post After Gallipoli: Christmas on Lemnos.
Life after the war
Ernest Lawrence stayed in the war much longer. The Memorial's caption says he returned to Australia in November 1918 and that the two "commenced their life together, going on to have four children". His own Memorial record gives his date of return as 7 January 1919, and lists his final rank as Private.
Ernest died on 20 July 1933. Clarice Jessie Daley died on 2 May 1944. Their marriage certificate, made on Lemnos in 1915, survives as one of the quieter records of the Gallipoli campaign.
Why her story matters
Clarice Daley was one of the Anzac nurses on Lemnos, and her service lasted less than a year overseas. In that time she travelled from Melbourne to Lemnos, nursed the sick and wounded of the Gallipoli campaign on the island, and married a light horseman. Her service most likely ended, as the Memorial's caption suggests, because she had married.
Stories like hers help explain the contribution of WW1 nurses. Australian nurses in WW1 worked close to the fighting, in hard conditions, and many of their names are now far less known than those of the men they cared for.
Remembering the WW1 nurses
If you would like to honour the WW1 nurses, our Australia in the Great War collection brings together commemorative pieces from 1914 to 1918, and our post Thanking and Remembering Our Nation's Military Nurses looks at their wider legacy. The Our Nurses Eternal Gratitude lapel pin is encircled by the words "LEST WE FORGET" and "Eternal Gratitude", as the listing describes it.
The Soldier and Nurse Limited Edition lapel pin shows a serviceman and a nurse side by side beneath the words "Lest We Forget" (Limited Edition: 1,000). For younger family members, the Little Aussie WW1 Nurse Bear is a gentle way to start the conversation. You can find more in our range of WW1 badges.
Lest we forget.
Sources
1 Australian War Memorial | Staff Nurse Clarice Jessie Daley | date not shown | https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P11012129
2 Australian War Memorial | First World War Embarkation Roll: Clarice Jessie Daley | date not shown | https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1844155
3 Australian War Memorial | Nurse Clarice Daley and Sergeant Ernest Lawrence married in October 1915 at the Church Camp, West Lemnos (photograph P01360.001) | date made 21 October 1915 | https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C203050
4 Australian War Memorial | Certificate of Marriage for Ernest Alfred Lawrence and Clarice Jessie Daley, 1915 | 1915 | https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1303705
5 Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee (Jim Claven) | Lemnos Heroes: Nurse Clarice Daley and Sergeant Ernest Lawrence | 12 November 2014 | http://lemnosgallipolicc.blogspot.com/2014/11/lemnos-heroes-nurse-clarice-daley-and.html
6 Department of Veterans' Affairs, Anzac Portal | Australian Army Nursing Service in World War I | date not shown | https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/ww1/military-organisation/australian-imperial-force/australian-army-nursing-service
7 Lemnos Remembrance Trail | Medical | date not shown | https://www.lemnosremembrancetrail.gov.au/theme/medical
8 Australian War Memorial | Private Ernest Alfred Lawrence | date not shown | https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P11012128
9 Military Shop | Eternal Gratitude Nurse Lapel Pin | SKU BN1409 | https://militaryshop.com.au/products/our-nurses-eternal-gratitude-lapel-pin.html
10 Military Shop | Soldier and Nurse Limited Edition Lapel Pin | SKU BN3182 | https://militaryshop.com.au/products/soldier-and-nurse-limited-edition-lapel-pin.html
11 Military Shop | Little Aussie WW1 Nurse Bear | SKU BN47376 | https://militaryshop.com.au/products/little-aussie-ww1-nurse-bear.html
