Gallipoli Nightingale

Among the names on the Manly Roll of Honour of those who served in World War One are a handful of women. most of whom served as nurses. One Manly nurse in particular appears to have been an unsung heroine. She was Florence Ethel Spalding, daughter of the late William and Mrs Mary Spalding, of Hope House, West Esplanade, Manly, and later of 52 Darley Road, Manly. Born in Goulburn in 1881, she lived in Manly with her mother before serving in the AANS prior to the war. When war broke out, she rejoined and left Sydney on28 November 1914 on the Kyarra for Cairo. In April 1915, she was one of the team of nursing sisters who served on the hospital ships at the Gallipoli landings. “I went backwards and forwards there till the evacuation”, she wrote. She was twice Mentioned in Despatches, and for distinguished services in the field she was awarded the Royal Red Cross Decoration (2nd Class) on 1 January 1916; the Decoration 1st Class is only very rarely awarded. While nursing Australian soldiers at Cairo, she fell in love with Mr William Fidler, and left the nursing service to get married to him, returning to Australia in March 1916. National Archives records show that she was also the recipient of the 1914/15 Star, the Victory Medal, and the British War Medal. She applied for the Anzac commemorative medal and badge in 1967, by which time she was living at Hunter’s Hill. She died in 1976. Marianne Barker’s book Nightingales in the Mud, though it does not mention Sister Spalding, is a very good source of further information on the Gallipoli nurses.