Emily Taylor
‘We are starting now to Anzac (8am), where so many Australians are. We load up with wounded as fast as we can, and convey them to Imbros or Lemnos. This boat travels so quickly and it is very necessary, because the wounded are lying waiting on the sand in the hot sun, and no proper food or drink, and only a first aid dressing clapped on.’
– Emily Taylor, Tweed Daily, 6 Nov. 1915
Born in London in 1877 and an experienced nurse when she enlisted in April 1915, Emily Taylor had trained in Sydney Hospital between 1898 and 1902. She then worked at hospitals in Inverell, Newcastle, Brisbane and Port Macquarie. In 1910, she was appointed matron of Molong Hospital.
Dr Thomas Fiaschi, who later commanded No. 3 Australian General Hospital (3AGH) on Lemnos, had worked with Emily before the war and provided a reference for the Molong Hospital position. Dr Lowe, who worked with her at the hospital for sick children in Brisbane, described her as ‘careful, reliable, conscientious and capable’, with a ‘cheery disposition’ that made her a favourite with staff and patients alike.
Emily left Australia with 3AGH on SS Mooltan in May 1915, bound for England, once again working with Dr Fiaschi. Before 3AGH was landed on Lemnos, she was one of six 3AGH nurses assigned to the hospital ship Formosa. This French ship had capacity for about 500 patients and was staffed by French crew, six Australian nurses, four English doctors and about 30 orderlies.
When anchored off Anzac beach or Cape Helles, Emily witnessed onshore bombardments and Turkish shells landing in the water near her ship: ‘Our ship quivers with the vibration of the air’. She could also hear constant rifle fire on shore. Patients were loaded onto the Formosa from barges. Her first task was to give her patients nourishment and morphia. She then cut off their ‘filthy’ clothes and cleaned and dressed their always-grisly wounds. Emily dressed wounds for long hours each day, often not sleeping until midnight.
She also served on Lemnos, where she was stationed for several weeks following the December evacuation of troops from Gallipoli.
Emily served in Egypt and England and then on the Western Front until the end of the war, with the rank of sister from September 1917. Between August and November 1918, she served in casualty clearing stations close to the frontline during the Allied advance. She returned to Australia in November 1919, and in 1920 accepted the position of matron of Auburn Hospital, New South Wales.
She died on 6 May 1962.