Tait, Agnes May
Nurse Agnes May Tait - Australian Army Nursing Service
Agnes May Tait was born in Fremantle on the 22nd March 1890 to James and Agnes Tait, The Tait family lived at Arthur Head Fremantle. The family had a cottage at Arthur's Head as James was a pilot employed by Fremantle Harbour. Agnes went to Princess May's Girls School.
The Tait family moved to Carmel in the Perth Hills prior to the Great War. Agnes took up nursing and spent three years learning to be a nurse at Perth Public Hospital.
Her initial attestation form is missing but it appears that Agnes enlisted in 1915 and was initially assigned as a nurse to the Hospital Ship Morea which left Melbourne in August 1915. The ship tended wounded soldiers between Gallipoli, Egypt and Australia.
It then appears that Agnes disembarked in Egypt from the RMS Morea as she enlisted into the Australian Army Nursing Service at Helouan Egypt on the 18th March 1916. The 25 year old Agnes was accepted for service and the medical examiner recorded her physical attributes as;
Height - Five feet seven inches tall;
Weight - 9 stone;
Chest Measurement - 33 inches;
Complexion - Dark;
Eyes - Brown;
Hair - Dark Brown.
Agnes was then attached for duty with the 3rd Australian General Hospital in Egypt until the 14th April 1916. It seems then Agnes was assigned for duty on a hospital ship returning to Australia.
After being disembarked in Victoria, Agnes re-enlisted into the Australian Army Nursing Service and was assigned for duty aboard the ship HMAT Themistocles. This ship left port Melbourne on the 28th July 1916.
Agnes went to England and back to Australia as part of the Nursing Staff on the Sea Transport service. At Fremantle on the 29th January 1917 she embarked once again, this time on the transport ship Miltiades. After a long sea voyage the ship arrived at Devonport Harbour on the 27th March 1917.
On arrival in England Agnes was sent for duty to the 2nd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Southall. On the 11th May 1917 she was detached for duty with St Alban's Hospital which was a convalescent home run by the Australian Army Nursing Service.
On the 25th May 1917 Agnes returned for duty to the 2nd Australian Auxiliary Hospital. On the 11th June 1917 she was sent for duty to Southwell Gardens, which was a hospital for nursing staff.
On the 31st August 1917 Agnes was sent to No.2 Command Depot Camp at Weymouth to be on the nursing staff. She remained in this camp for the rest of 1917, and on the 4th January 1918 returned to No.2 Australian Auxiliary Hospital.
On the 8th January 1918 Agnes was sent to France and was assigned to No.2 Australian General Hospital. At this time No.2 AGH was located at Wimereux France. Though it was an Australian Hospital, it received patients from all the Commonwealth countries. Wimereux is situated on the French coast. Even though it was quite distant from the firing line, the Germans did send over bombers which targeted this area.
Agnes was on duty at No.2 Australian General Hospital through to July 1918 when she was granted a month's furlough to the UK. She returned on the 29th August 1918.
On the 1st October 1918 Agnes was promoted to the rank of Sister. She remained with the 2nd AGH till after the Armistice. On the 23rd December 1918 she was granted leave to Paris, being able to have Christmas and New Year there. She returned to the 2nd AGH on the 8th January 1919.
Though the war had ended the nursing staff still had to tend the sick from the influenza outbreak and other prevalent diseases, plus the results of soldiers having accidents.
On the 19th March 1919 Agnes was transferred to duty with the 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Station. This was the only one of two Australian units that went into Germany after the Armistice. (The other being the 4th Squadron Australian Flying Corps)
While in Germany the 3rd ACCS was located at Euskirchen. Agnes stayed with this unit in Germany until the 26th April 1919, when the 3rd ACCS were returned to France.
Photo below of the Western Australian members 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Station in Germany in 1919. Agnes is pictured on right.
After returning from Germany, Agnes remained on the staff of the 3rd ACCS till the 12th May 1919 when she was transferred to the 3rd Australian General Hospital at Abbeville. The following week Agnes left France and returned to London, at which point she reported to the head Matron of the AANS in England.
On the 16th June 1919 Agnes boarded the transport ship RMS Ormonde and set sail for home, reaching Fremantle on the 24th July 1919.
Agnes had qualified for the three service medals, the 1914/15 Star, Victory Medal and British War Medal.
In October 1919 Agnes signed up for service with No.8 Australian General Hospital in South Terrace Fremantle. There were still many war casualties being treated here and Agnes would have been kept busy. She served here till the 21st December 1920 when she was discharged at her own request.
She then returned to the family home in the hills and in 1922 was working at "Carmel" in the Shire of Swan.
By 1925 Agnes was working at "Stromness' at St Leonards Street Cottesloe Beach. Stromness was a hospital set up in 1918 to treat mental patients from the Great War. It had a 30 bed capacity but was always full. It treated psychiatric cases until 1928.
In 1928 Agnes then transferred to work at King Edward Hospital in Subiaco. She stayed here for a couple of years but then went back to the Perth hills.
From 1931-49 she was working as a nurse at "Ophir" in Kalamunda.
In 1954 Agnes seemingly retired and was living at 27 Headingly Road Kalamunda.
Agnes died in Guildford WA on the 20th June 1955 and was buried at Guildford Cemetery.
The Australian War Memorial has photos of Nurse Agnes May Tait during her war service. The first two aboard the transport ship Miltiades and the third on the staff of the 2nd Australian General Hospital in France (AWM Photos P00062.002, P00062.003 & EO2116) In the 2nd AGH group photo Agnes is 4th from left in the middle row.