Next in sequence Previous in sequence Home Pastel index
Staff Nurse
Miss M.M.L. (from Melbourne, Australia) (her name was Mary McLean Loughron)
The "Matron", the senior nurse is an assertive woman. She reigns over an 'ambulance' (see Field Ambulance in Wikipedia), the most difficult organism to manage. One must balance caring needs, discipline maintenance, and feminine instincts. There is no doubt about this one succeeding in her task. She is, to be sure, an assertive woman and in control of herself. Not that she is without charm: from under her billowing hat, her energetic gaze is tempered by softness. Her eyes are clear, like those of the women of her country, and the wounded over whom she stoops must find in her eyes the tenderness as necessary as the most skillful care. But she is also an officer and needs to be obeyed. This war will be well ordered in this particular world, thanks to the feminine touch.
Postscript
There is lots more information about her on the Discovering Anzacs website
Lived 1886-1972
Staff Nurse
Queen Alexandra's Imperial Nursing Service
No 7 Stationary Hospital, Boulogne
Matron Loughron, born in Winchelsea, Vic, served as a nurse with the British Army in France in the Queen Alexandra Imperial Medical Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR) from the beginning of 1915 to the end of the First World War, and immediately afterwards as Matron of the Peace Conference Hospital in Paris. As Staff Nurse Loughron, she was Mentioned in Despatches on 30 April 1916 for gallant and distinguished conduct in the field. In 1917, Matron Loughron received the Royal Red Cross (2nd class) medal and after the end of the First World War, the Royal Red Cross (1st Class) medal.
Attached as nursing staff at Melbourne Hospital
Mentioned in Despatches
Date of Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: 21 September 1916
Location in Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: Page 2622, position 69
Date of London Gazette: 15 June 1916
Location in London Gazette: Page 5958, position 2
Awarded Royal Red Cross (2nd Class)
Date of Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: 4 October 1917
Location in Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: Page 2627, position 44
Date of London Gazette: 4 June 1917
Location in London Gazette: Page 5488, position 1
This rather strange statement is in her Australian War Memorial pages It is possibly contemporary