Nurses - New Caledonia

Date: 1943-1944

From: New Zealand. Department of Internal Affairs. War History Branch :Photographs relating to World War 1914-1918, World War 1939-1945, occupation of Japan, Korean War, and Malayan Emergency

By: Barns-Graham, Allan Barclay, 1906-2006

Reference: PA1-q-303

Description: Photographs of New Zealand military personnel serving in the Pacific theatre during World War 2, 1943-1945, taken by various photographers and compiled for official purposes. Many individuals identified are listed above, but while many others are identified in group portraits they are not named above. Amongst the official NZ photographs there are a few from the official British war photographs. Signals personnel train at the New Zealand School of Signals in New Caledonia; New Zealanders construct roads on Vella Lavella; the Post office at Vella Lavella; the boot repair section; arrival of Xmas mail in New Caledonia. Works services engaged in construction of the NZ General Hospital No 4; hospital wards; wounded and sick soldiers with nursing staff; and convalescents; Xmas dinner at the Artillery Training Dept; New Year function at the No 4 General Hospital (Boguen Detachment); an ice cream plant amenity provided by the NZ National Patriotic Fund Board. Field maintenance camp in the Solomons. Various sporting activities at a number of sites in the Pacific including boxing championships, race meetings, aquatic sports carnival on Vella Lavella including a Xmas-New Year treasure hunt; native canoes; cricket; rugby games and team portraits; New Year sports meetings; road race; swimming carnival and basketball. Group portraits of officers and staff at the New Zealand Base Reception Depot; the Base Ordnance Dept.; Wharf operating Unit; WAAC personnel at the NZ Convalescent Depot; presentation of awards by H E Barrowclough. Embarkation of NZ troops for a commando raid on Green Islands (known as the Green Island Campaign and as the Nissan Campaign); troops boarding a destroyer by means of nets on the side; soldiers wounded in the raid; men camouflaged with blackened faces; LSTs (Tank Landing Ships); unloading heavy vehicles and equipment form LSTs; fresh water being brought ashore from an LST; LCI (Landing Craft for Infantry) amphibious ships. Parade of various NZ troops welcoming "Fighting French" volunteers home from North Africa; a NZ casualty clearing station at Guadalcanal. Activities of NZ troops at Nissan Island; capture of Japanese antitank guns, army radio sets and medical equipment; group portraits of various personnel on Nissan Island. Dr W W Hallright with assistants giving medical treatment to Nissan Island natives prior to their being evacuated to Guadalcanal, and also giving medical treatment for Pinipel natives. Scenes on Treasury Island include native islanders thatching a roof for a new church at Falamai built by NZ soldiers in memory of NZ and American soldiers, and presented to the nation to replace their church which had been destroyed by fire in the Treasury Islands campaignl; the cemetery at Falamai; a church service at the open air "St James' Theatre"; yacht races; a barbershop. On Nissan Island the No 2 Platoon of a Field Co. engineers constructing Halas Pier and Salipal Pier; a sawmill operated by Field Park Sawmill section; Field Ambulance laboratory; malarial control unit; group portraits of various sections; wood chopping competitions. In New Caledonia there are many scenes of the Kalavere Hospital and the 2nd NZ Convalescent Depot; the opening of the new Kiwi Club built by NZ work services personnel who built it from prefabricated sections made in NZ, with representatives from the NZ National Patriotic Fund Board attending; a dance at the club; dance band; and the Moindah Racing Club meeting. On Mono Island a naval control tower; and Saveke Bridge built by NZ engineers. On Stirling Island scenes of an antitank battery; army and navy personnel meet on Treasury Island; Anzac Day parade in Bourail Camp (New Caeldonia); scenes of members of the Fijian Defence Force with New Zealanders in Bouganville; a native church at the Allied Cemetery in Guadalcanal. Views of the Royal New Zealand Navy in the Pacific showing crew members; the boiler room; engine room; gun crew practice; and depth charge drill. Black and white reproductions of 5 paintings by 3rd NZ Division war artist Lt Allan Barns-Graham: The town of Bourail; a bridge designed and built by NZ engineers designed to carry the heaviest loads; a sketch of a fox-hole near Island Command on Vella Lavella; caped men returning from an engagement on Nissan Island; and the landing at Pokonian Plantation. Quantity: 1 album(s) Album(s). Physical Description: Album with faded blue cover, darker blue corners and spine; 34.5 x 22.0 cm

Date: [1943-1944]

From: New Zealand. Department of Internal Affairs. War History Branch :Photographs relating to World War 1914-1918, World War 1939-1945, occupation of Japan, Korean War, and Malayan Emergency

Reference: PA1-q-302

Description: Photographs of New Zealand military personnel serving in the Pacific theatre during World War 2, 1943-1945, taken by various photographers and compiled for official purposes. Many individuals identified are listed above, but while many others are identified in group portraits they are not named above. Many scenes show NZers in training exercises in New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, including Bren carriers crossing rivers on raft & trestles erected by military engineers; signals; road construction; thatching and constructing buildings (the Works Construction Unit); amphibious training from invasion barges; unloading and landing supplies; transporting guns and equipment; bridge building; digging fox holes and camping in the jungle; jungle warfare; maintaining wireless communication; organising camouflage; repairing damaged weapons; use of local canoes for transportation; ordnance workshops; and weapon training. Many scenes show parades, and inspections, including the King's Birthday parade in New Caledonia; a church parade; the Hon Mr F Jones visiting NZ troops; visit of Hon W Perry; visit of General Freyberg; visit of Admiral Halsey (US); and visit of the Governor of New Caledonia. Sporting activities, including individual players and group portraits of various teams of rugby players, soccer teams, hockey teams, swimming teams and a carnival, boat races, athletics, jockeys and horse racing, wrestling and boxing; surf clubs including the Engineers' team, Infantry No 2 team, and the Signals' team. Daily scenes including food preparation and coking; an anti-mosquito campaign; a leave centre for pacific troops; a dance sponsored by the American Red Crosss Service Club, and a celebration of New Zealand Day at the club; casting votes for NZ elections and a visit of scrutineers overseeing the voting; NZEF Base Repertory Players and the Kiwi Concert Party; a Base Camp reception at the hospital in New Caledonia; a garden party held by the Officers' School; Xmas parcels for NZ troops in the advanced Pacific Base. Images linked with medical care in New Caledonia, Guadalcanal and Treasury Islands include hospitals; medical personnel including dental surgeons, opticians and nurses; convalescent depot; and evacuation and transportation of the sick and wounded; and scenes of funeral services and graves of NZ soldiers in the Solomon Islands. Transportation of equipment and troops loading and embarking for the north from New Caledonia; landing craft; Liberty ships; New Zealanders in Guadalcanal. The NZ Brigade arriving in Guadalcanal, and the move from Guadalcanal to Vella Lavella on board L.S.Ts (Landing ship, tank); climbing up nets on the side of transports; bulldozer drawing heavy vehicles and equipment from the L.S.T.; New Zealand soldiers with Fijian commandoes; use of outrigger canoes; capture of a Japanese armed coastal barge, a Japanese supply boat and camp equipment left by retreating Japanese. Treasury Islands campaign in which a small group of NZ worked with native guides; two native chiefs who were extremely helpful; a NZ camp at Malsi on Mono Island; Falamai Village; water collection at Saveke River on Mono Island; tree cutting to provide wood for pump bases and flooring; unloading drums of petrol; NZ troops consolidate on Treasury Islands. Quantity: 1 album(s) Album(s). Physical Description: Album with faded blue cover, black corners and spine; 34.5 x 22.0 cm

Date: 2 Mar 2000 - 02 Mar 2000

From: Wartime nurses project

By: Roberts, Helen Brittan, 1915-2010

Reference: OHInt-0731/09

Description: Helen Brittan Roberts (nee Foster) born Invercargill 1915, after five years family moved to Christchurch and after a further five years moved to Lower Hutt where her family lived for thirty years. Recalls training as a nurse at Christchurch Hospital and working at Alexandra Hospital, Wellington in 1939 when war was declared. Recalls being called up in 1941, spending nine months at Trentham Army Camp before being sent to New Caledonia, leaving on New Years Eve. Mentions total black-outs. Describes tent based hospital and type of illness treated - mainly soldiers (New Zealand) coming in from the jungle with skin rashes and skin diseases. Mentions the `Talamanca' a ship used for ferrying nurses backwards and forwards on leave. Mentions American PX stores. Refers to new prefab hut hospital being built. Recalls being moved to Guadalcanal and describes conditions there with huts on the beach. After six weeks there was sent to Italy in 1943, travelling on the Maunganui (ship). Refers to Miss Edith Lewis (Matron). Refers to attack of dysentery. Describes move on to Helwan in Egypt towards the end of the war to No 5 General Hospital, celebrating VJ Day and being sent home on the `Strathmore'. Talks about life afer the war, marriage in 1954 and general health as a result of dengue fever attack while overseas. Access Contact - see oral history librarian Interviewer(s) - Anna Rogers Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-012497 Quantity: 1 C90 cassette(s). 1 transcript(s). 1 Electronic document(s) - transcript. 1 interview(s). 45 Minutes Duration. Physical Description: Textual file - Microsoft word Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-4306, OHDL-000843.

Date: 01 August 1982 - 01 Aug 1982

From: New Zealand Nursing Education and Research Foundation oral history project

By: Pope, Myrtle Flora, 1914-2000; Christensen, Judith Carol, 1943-

Reference: OHInt-0014/134

Description: Myrtle Flora Pope registered as a nurse at Gisborne Hospital 1939, having worked since the age of 14 as a domestic help in the Waikato Region and then 5 years as Launderess at Waihi Hospital. Outlines her background and growing up in the Hokianga area before death of her mother, until leaving home at the age of 14 years. Describes influenza epidemic at Hokianga (1914-1918) which the family suffered. Talks about her life at Waihi Hospital and training days at Gisborne; nursing of tuberculosis patients; time spent at Trentham Training Camp Hospital in 1941 before going to Army Hospital in Fiji - describes conditions in hospital in Fiji. Later went with 3rd Division of 4th New Zealand General Hospital to New Caledonia where they set up a hospital which she describes. This was followed by a spell in Helwan (Egypt). In 1945 nursed POWs in fever hospital in the south of England - describes illnesses of POWs. Gives reaction on hearing of atom bombs which were dropped in Japan. Access Contact - see oral history librarian Venue - Wellington Other - limited biographical information available Interviewer(s) - J Christenson Venue - NERF Oral History Workshop, Wellington Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-000063-64; OHLC-000051; OHLC-000064; OHLC-003931-OHLC-003932 Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 1 interview(s). 1.30 Hours and minutes Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete OHA-1074 (hand-written).

Date: [ca 1940]

From: New Zealand. Department of Internal Affairs. War History Branch :Photographs relating to World War 1914-1918, World War 1939-1945, occupation of Japan, Korean War, and Malayan Emergency

Reference: WH-0384

Description: Nurses and wounded soldiers of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Pacific at the 4th New Zealand General Hospital in New Caledonia. Included are: Spr R S Barnaby, Ptes R W McIntosh and J Marsh, Gnr C E Courtney, Pte F T Wills and Nurse I G Grant. Taken by an unidentified photographer, circa 1940. Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).

Date: [ca 1940]

From: New Zealand. Department of Internal Affairs. War History Branch :Photographs relating to World War 1914-1918, World War 1939-1945, occupation of Japan, Korean War, and Malayan Emergency

Reference: WH-0380

Description: Nurses and wounded soldiers of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Pacific at the 4th New Zealand General Hospital in New Caledonia. Included are Cpl J A Foul, Pte N A Thompson,, Dur T A Marchant, Str K Wade, Pte B W Guthrie, Nurse A M Russel, Pte S W T Bevan, Cpt L A Richardson, Str C M Velland, Gnr N Dalzell, Pte J E Benesman, Cpt W Farrow, J F Leydon, Gnr E Caldis. Taken by an unidentified photographer, circa 1940. Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).

Date: [ca 1940]

From: New Zealand. Department of Internal Affairs. War History Branch :Photographs relating to World War 1914-1918, World War 1939-1945, occupation of Japan, Korean War, and Malayan Emergency

Reference: WH-0379

Description: Nursing sister and wounded soldiers of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Pacific at the 4th New Zealand General Hospital in New Caledonia. Included are: Able seaman J Power, Pte L J Brisco, Gnr J P Fitzgerald, Str C M Kelland, Pte G D Clarke and Dvr N D Kingdon. Taken by an unidentified photographer, circa 1940. Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).

Date: [ca 1940]

From: New Zealand. Department of Internal Affairs. War History Branch :Photographs relating to World War 1914-1918, World War 1939-1945, occupation of Japan, Korean War, and Malayan Emergency

Reference: WH-0392

Description: Nurses and wounded soldiers of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Pacific at the 4th New Zealand General Hospital in New Caledonia. Included are: Pte G Moran, Str W M Gunn, Dvr H Read, Str B Giochetto, Spr T A Wilson and Dvr P Moore. Taken by an unidentified photographer, circa 1940. Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).