Charlotte Donnelly
‘Miss C Donnelly, eldest daughter of the late Mr PJB Donnelly, and Mrs Donnelly, of Douglas, Lake George, has been accepted as a nurse for the seat of war, and will be leaving Australia in a few weeks. Three of her brothers are now serving and have just left Egypt for England.’
– Yass Courier, 6 May 1915
Charlotte Donnelly was born in Bungendore, New South Wales, in 1887. She had trained at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, graduating in 1912. Her decision to join the war effort and serve overseas was announced to the community in the local paper.
Charlotte enlisted in the AIF on 26 April 1915. Assigned to No. 3 Australian General Hospital (3AGH), she embarked on the SS Mooltan in Melbourne for England in May, eventually reaching Lemnos in early August.
Charlotte recalled to Matron Adelaide Maude Kellett (who interviewed Australian nurses for Colonel Arthur Graham Butler during their wait for transport back home after the war) the rudimentary conditions they encountered when establishing 3AGH on Turks Head Peninsula and the challenging environment: ‘The climate was very trying, and the flies were a great nuisance. There was a terrible wind at times.’ Yet her recollections also suggest her generally positive demeanour in the face of the wartime hardship.
Charlotte remained on Lemnos until 3AGH was transferred to Egypt in late January 1916. There, she remained with the hospital at Abbassia for about a year and then at No. 14 Australian General Hospital for three months. She was promoted to sister in September 1917 and served in England and then France for the remainder of the war. Termination of her service with the AIF was approved on 5 November 1920.
She died in Melbourne in 1973.
