Olive Haynes

Olive Haynes was born in St Peters, South Australia, in 1888. She began her training at Adelaide Hospital in 1909, graduating in 1912 and serving as charge nurse at the hospital through 1913.

The daughter of an Anglican priest, Olive grew up in a family context of tending to the welfare of others. She joined  the Australian Army Service on 6 August 1914, just two days after war was declared, enlisting for overseas service on 1 November, aged 26.

Olive sailed on HMAT Kyarra, which arrived in Alexandria in January 1915. She began working at No. 2 General Hospital (2AGH), initially based at Mena House Hotel, near the Australian troops’ base, and from May, she also worked at 2AGH’s Ghezireh Palace Hotel facility in Cairo.

Following the August offensive on Gallipoli, she was one of a group of nurses who volunteered to join No. 2 Stationary Hospital (2ASH) on Lemnos; also in that group was Nellie Morrice, a fellow traveller on the Kyarra and at 2AGH. Olive was promoted from staff nurse to sister when she joined 2ASH.

After four months on Lemnos, Olive worked briefly with 2AGH and No. 3 Auxiliary Hospital in Egypt before departing for France. There, she was, for a period, in closer proximity to the frontline, joining No. 2 Australian Casualty Clearing Station, where she witnessed close-up the grim brutality of war.

Olive was in England with Australian Auxiliary Hospital in Dartford when she resigned from the AIF in December 1917 ‘in consequence of marriage’. She had met Australian Lieutenant Norval Henry (Pat) Dooley the previous year.

After the war, the couple settled in Melbourne, where they raised a large family of seven children and Pat worked in a legal practice. During the Great Depression, Olive supported those struggling though dark economic days. During Second World War, she worked with the Australian Comforts Fund and the Red Cross, extending welfare support to personnel serving abroad.

She died at the age of 90, in 1978