Stories from the Archives

In commemoration of ANZAC Day, the Wilderness Archives collection is currently featuring a selection of stories of Wilderness Women who served in WWII.

As in all parts of Australian society, the war years had a significant impact on life at the School. It is both fascinating and sobering to read of the changes wrought across not only day-to-day habits but also across the campus. In 1942, the School Magazine records that

“The biggest and heaviest job facing the School was the digging of the (air raid) trenches, which was splendidly done by fathers, brothers and friends of the children and staff.”

Likewise, a Lower School poem confirms the ongoing threat of air raids that permeated the consciousness of the girls:

AIR-RAID PRECAUTIONS

Should you hear the air-raid sirens Screeching forth their warning note, Take things quietly, do things quickly, Do not panic, little goat. Take your satchel, put your hat on, If you’re hungry, take your lunch. Jump down the trench in single file, Don’t start clambering in a bunch. Bob down quickly, hide your faces, Keep quite still, don’t show your hands, It’s not likely you’ll be spotted, If you follow these commands.

School Magazines from this era are punctuated with references to the war effort and updates of old scholars serving in the Australian General Hospitals, Imperial Forces, Women’s Army Service, Voluntary Aid Detachment, Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, Women’s Royal Naval Service, and Red Cross Field Force.

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Many old scholars worked in munitions and other ‘male’ areas as Land Army girls, delivery van drivers, and bank tellers to release men for active service. Many served overseas, with at least eight women becoming superintendents or higher. In 1943, Miss Mamie Brown and Assistant Head Mistress Miss Miriam Powell wrote,

“You girls are facing a great attempt in the building of a fairer, brighter world – the greatest adventure of all time and one in which women must take their full share.”

A. Sisters Quinlan and Laffer with C.C.S. men. (1942). Retrieved

April 29, 2021, from https://hdl.handle.net/10070/738850. B. A young woman assembling an oil tank for a Beaufort bomber in a ‘munitions factory. (1943). Retrieved April 29, 2021, from https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/

B+7798/433.

C. Portrait depicting Sister Lorna Laffer, Australian Army

Nurses Service (AANS), wearing ‘walking out’ uniform,

Darwin, 1942. Retrieved April 29, 2021, from Australian War

Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C176884. D. Adelaide River, N.T. Australia. 1942-10-13. Sister L. Laffer (right) and Sister E. Quinlan giving inoculations to members of area headquarters, at 119 Australia General Hospital.

Retrieved April 29, 2021, from Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C10781.

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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:

“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… 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.

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