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LORNA LAFFER 1927 Year Group 15 APRIL 1909 – 16 JANUARY 1995
THE LATE LORNA LAFFER (1927), certainly took her full share of this adventure, enlisting in the Australian Army Nursing Service in 1941, being made a Captain in 1942. She was one of two nursing sisters on a hospital train that transported sick and wounded troops from Darwin to the 119th Australian General Hospital, 112 kilometres away and sometimes down to Katherine, a further 205 kilometres. In Survivors and Achievers – Wilderness Women Speaking, Lorna shares her incredible experiences. Still, she admits that she was scared, not only for herself but for the other men and women who were involved in the War:
When we returned from War we were split up into the states that we came from. That was like being deprived of your family. The other sisters and even some of the patients had been very close associates for all the time you had been away.” Lorna’s story and that of other old scholars can be experienced through the current exhibit in the School’s Archive collection that recognises and honours the war effort of Wildy women through shared memories of service and sacrifice. Lest we forget. To make an appointment to view the Archives collection, contact our School Archivist, Marg Keane on 08 8343 1066.
“It wasn’t very nice to be under fire, even if it wasn’t directed at you. There were many sad and tragic incidents… I try to remember, not these, but the funnier times. The security… was so tight you didn’t know where you were going until you reached your destination. Not knowing where your friends were going or if you would hear from them again was hard to deal with, but I think we got used to it after a while. The nursing conditions were very poor. If you didn’t have bedding, you just had to live with that. Some of the equipment was from World War I… We might have had a few bowls, forceps and maybe a few kidney dishes. We might have had a sterilizer if we were lucky…
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