Lucy Daw
‘Got into harbor at Lemnos at 8am, the whole of it is full with war ships of almost every description. Saw several submarines for the first time ... Colonel Fiaschi met our boat, came on and told us to our horror and disappointment that our tents have not arrived and that here [aboard the ship] we have to stay, it’s all a most dreadful muddle.’
– Lucy Daw, diary, 5 Aug. 1915
Born in Mt Barker, in the Adelaide Hills, in 1883, Lucy Daw completed her nursing training at Adelaide Hospital in 1907. She was 31 when she enlisted in the AIF, leaving Australia on the SS Mooltan in May 1915, with No. 3 Australian General Hospital (3AGH).
Her diaries (held in the Health Museum of South Australia) express the shared disappointment and frustration of not being able to get to work immediately on reaching Lemnos, just as they tell of some of the discomforts and hardships endured on the island. Lucy remained on Lemnos until 3AGH departed for Egypt in January 1916.
Staff Nurse Lucy Daw was promoted after her service on Lemnos; in May 1917, she became Sister Daw, the 3AGH transferring at that time from England to France.
After returning to Australia in 1919, Lucy resumed her work at Adelaide Hospital. Her positions included both assisting and acting matron before she was appointed matron in 1931. Alongside her work on the wards, Lucy was an advocate and leader for the nursing profession. She served as president of the Returned Sisters’ sub-branch, a member of the executive of the National Council of Women and a member of the Royal British Nurses’ Association (South Australia Branch).
In 1939, she also became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for ‘long and assiduous service in the nursing profession’.
She died at the age of 75 in 1958.
