History – The Great War

The Great War (1914-18) took place when my mother was a girl. She grew up baking for basket socials and patriotic fetes to raise funds to send comfort parcels to the soldiers. A woman’s role was to keep the home fires burning, but for more than 600 New Zealand women the war was very different. They were actively involved in the war zones of Gallipoli and France as military nurses.

One of these women was Sister Charlotte Le Gallias, whose parents Horatio and Eliza lived at Mangakura, near Glorit. The Mangakura and Glorit communities had farewelled Charlotte’s brother Leddra in March 1915 and he was already at Gallipoli with the 4th Reinforcements when Charlotte left Wellington on the hospital ship Maheno on July 10, 1915.

New Zealanders had responded generously to an appeal from the Governor-General, the Earl of Liverpool, and the Maheno had been fitted out with eight wards and two operating theatres. In accordance with the Hague Convention, she had been repainted white with a broad green stripe down her sides and large red crosses on her funnels and sides. The route taken was via Adelaide, Colombo, Suez and Alexandria.

The ship arrived at Moudros on August 25, 1915, and the next day was off Anzac Cove loading casualties from the Battle of Hill 60, which was the last major assault of the Battle of Gallipoli. During the following months, the Maheno ferried thousands of casualties to various hospitals.

Extracts from a letter written by Private Guy Farrell describe the scene:

I am an orderly on that splendid gift of New Zealand, the hospital ship ‘Maheno’ and am on night duty in my ward which is under the charge of Sister Le Gallias.

We are lying at anchor in that awful place Anzac Cove and as we have had only one batch from the trenches we have only four patients but by tomorrow we will have a full compliment of 56.

I shall never forget the first few days of our initial trip to Anzac Bay when doctors, sisters and orderlies were at it for days on end with little or no rest except for meals which were taken hurriedly.

My poor sister worked like a Trojan and it beats me how she kept going for so long with such frightful cases we were getting.

It is not only our New Zealand boys — our sisters give their heart too, but they are equally attentive to a Tommy or a Gurkha warrior.

Charlotte’s brother Leddra, who was killed in action at Gallipoli on July 23, 1915, must have been in her thoughts often as she worked tirelessly for his compatriots.

She returned to New Zealand in June 1916 and was married to Charles Gardner in April 1918. This was not the end of her career as a military nurse. During World War II she joined the Australian Army Nurses and served for four years.

* References: New Zealand Military Nursing, Kendall & Corbett; Kia Tiaki, NZ Nurses Magazine.