Alice Jane Thompson

Alice Jane Thompson of Balgownie enlisted as a nurse at the age of 23 on 20 March 1917, according to the Australian War Memorial. She subsequently embarked from Sydney aboard RMS Mooltan on 9 June, 1917.

The following extracts come from the Illawarra Mercury after her departure:

Nurse. Thompson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs T. Thompson, Balgownie, is now en route for Salonika to take up duties in the military hospital there.

 

Nurses at the front – Information received from Nurse A. Thompson shows that forty of the three hundred nurses who left Australia on the ill-fated Mooltan were selected to proceed to Salonika, she being one of them. She states that most of the cases so far are sickness owing to the terrible heat, which is bad at this time of the year. However, she is satisfied with her lot and says she is not sorry that she came and if she had to choose over again she would do the same, as too much cannot be done for the boys who are fighting and bleeding for us all.

Records state that Nurse Thompson was kept in quarantine due to influenza. She married Dr Theo Allen in England, 16 January 1919 which resulted in her discharge from the AANS; they then returned to Australia.

Apart from receiving the British War and Victory medals, Alice Thompson was awarded a Greek Medal for Military Merit.

A letter was written by her mother to the Base Records Office which states that, Alice Jane Thompson died on 6 June 1922 and was buried at Wollongong.

NB. This image has been shared by Wollongong City Gallery following the War and Remembrance project (October 2003 – January 2004).

The purpose of the project was to acknowledge the contributions of Illawarra residents in various wars, conflicts and peacekeeping missions from the Boer War to the present day.

If anyone has any information or additional photographs of these soldiers and nurses, please contact us.