People Australia

Lydia Abell, in uniform of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve

photo courtesy of Newcastle Museum

Lydia Abell (1872-1959) nurse

Birth: 13 June 1872 in Wallsend, Newcastle, New South Wales, daughter of Elijah Abell, born in Heage, Derbyshire, England, and Margaret Preston, née Brown, born in Parramatta, New South Wales. Death: 21 July 1959 at Lady Gowrie Home, Gordon, Sydney. 

• Trained at Newcastle Hospital, graduating in 1898 and then worked there and privately for Thomas Cook, of Turanville, Scone, and at Sydney Women’s Hospital.
• A foundation member of the Australasian Trained Nurses Association.
• Left Australia in September 1915, and made her own way to England arriving in November 1915.
• Served during World War I in Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve.
• Staff nurse at a French hospital in Bordeaux, the Australian Voluntary Hospital in Wimereux, and in British military hospitals and casualty clearing stations.
• Awarded the Royal Red Cross, 2nd class, which was presented to her by King George V at Buckingham Palace in May 1919.
• Discharged in April 1919, she sailed from London in August 1919 on the Katoomba, which arrived in Sydney on 25 September.
• Returned to nursing in Sydney. In 1921 joined staff of Lady Davidson convalescent home Turramurra, retiring in 1933.