2nd Australian General Hospital
From Our Contribution
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | 2nd Australian General Hospital |
| Where formed | Egypt |
| Date formed | 21 Jan 1915 |
| Capacity | 1,500 in Egypt |
| Locations |
Cairo, Egypt Wimereux, France |
General Information
The first matron of 2AGH was a Boer War nurse. On 27 Sep 1914 Miss Ellen Julia (Nellie) Gould enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and was appointed Matron of No.2 Australian General Hospital. With six other nurses she left Australia on 20 October, disembarking at Alexandria, Egypt, on 4 Dec 1914. The hospital unit arrived later and she took up her duties as matron on 21 Jan 1915. The staff were established at Mena House when, a few months later, casualties from Gallipoli made necessary the preparation of a second hospital at Ghezireh Palace; the two hospitals had a total of 1500 beds.
In April 1916 the 2nd AGH was transferred to France aboard the Braemar Castle and after a brief period as an isolation hospital screning for infectous cases from Egypt, it established itself at Wimereux near Boulogne, arriving on 30 Jun 1916, the eve of the advance on the Somme. Its nursing staff numbered 115 at this time.
They took over the partly completed facility left by the departure of the 5th British Convalescent Hospital, and accepted their first patients on 2 Jul 1916.
The 2nd Austalian General Hospital closed at Wimereux on 7 Feb 1919, with nursing staff released in groups of 10 between 12 Mar and 19 Mar 1919.