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More than 350 people - including nurse leaders and descendants - gathered for a special memorial service 100 years to the day of the tragic sinking of the Marquette with its loss of 10 New Zealand nurses. Nursing Review shares photos and a short report on the centennial memorial of our military nursing service's greatest tragedy.

 

The commemorative service was held on October 23 at St Michaels and All Angels Church in Christchurch, the same church that in 1915 the first memorial service was held to mark the sinking and the first collection taken towards the building of the Nurses' Memorial Chapel in Christchurch. (Click here for full story of MARQUETTE DISASTER and CHAPEL)

Friends of the Chapel committee member Nanette Ainge said nearly 100 family members of those on board the Marquette that day were present for the special service, including representatives of all but one of the ten nurses lost.  The Governor-General, Lt Gen The Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae attended the service and remembered the outrage the loss of the nurses' lives caused in New Zealand a century ago when it was found the nursing staff, and members of the New Zealand Medical Corps (22 of which also died) were onboard a troop ship rather than a Red Cross-protected hospital ship. His predecessor, Lord Liverpool, ensured that from point on New Zealand nurses always travelled under the protection of hospital ships. Mateparae shared his disappointment that the service could not be held in the quake-damaged memorial chapel but was pleased to know that the chapel would be restored so it would remain a permanent reminder of the loss of the ten brave New Zealand nurses. He said amongst those brave nurses was Mary Gorman who, knowing she was severely injured, gave up her lifebelt to another nurse and the also injured Nona Hildyard who sang Its a Long Way to Tipperary to keep survivors' spirits up but sadly died before rescuers came.

Also speaking at the service was Lt Col Lee Turner, the director of the New Zealand Defence Force nursing services, who shared the story of the founding of the Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps in 1915 and how New Zealand's first official army nurses had sailed to Europe, under the formidable leadership of first matron-in-chief Hester Maclean, only months before the Marquette tragedy. (See NZ NURSES AT WAR for more on centenary of army nursing services). Pictured above is Lt Col Lee Turner (left) after the service with nurses in army nursing uniforms new and old.

Nurses who were descendants of Marquette survivors (including the great, great niece of  Mary Christmas who returned to Christchurch after the war to become a tutor at Christchurch Hospital's school of nursing)read excerpts from diary entries and letters home about the tragic sinking and the bravery of the nurses and medics - many of who continued to serve for the duration of the war.

Also present at the service were the Canterbury District Health Board executive director of nursing Mary Gordon, Ministry of Heath Chief Nurse Jane O'Malley, Nurse Executives of New Zealand chair Denise Kivell,other Canterbury nursing leaders, president of the Friends of the Chapel Dr Rayna Wootton, Chapel Trust chair David Morrell, Minister of Defence and local MP Gerry Brownlee, the Rear Admiral Chief of Navy, other defence representatives, sea scouts, current and past Christchurch Hospital nurses plus members of the Friends of the Chapel committee and chapel volunteers.

Pictured below after the service is Chief Nurse Jane O'Malley with nurses wearing replica first world war nursing uniforms.

The service was part of a weekend of activities to mark the centenary including an exhibition of memorabilia and stories from the sinking.  Included in the exhibit were a lifeboat flare from the Marquette, a watch that stopped at the time the ship sank, posthumous medals given to Christchurch Marquette victims Margaret Rogers, Lorna Rattray and Nona Hildyard along with newspaper headlines of the day, letters and diary entries.

Pictured below is Clare Ashton, an honorary research associate from the University of Sydney nursing school, who in September this year lead a commemorative voyage following in the footsteps of the Anzac nursing sisters that served in military hospitals on land and sea during the Gallipoli campaign. The ship, carrying the tour group of mostly New Zealand and Australian nurses, paused at the site of the wreck of the Marquette which was found on the sea bed of the Gulf of Salonika in 2009. Ashton said the nurses laid wreaths at the site, the ship lowered its flag and tooted its horn three times in remembrance and it was very poignant watching the wreaths float away.

Below: Before the memorial service held in St Michael and All Angels, Christchurch

  

Wreaths were laid outside the church by the Governor-General and other people attending the service:

 

 A poppy was left in memory of Isabella Clark one of the ten New Zealand nurses who died in the sinking of the Marquette one hundred years ago.