DOBSON, Vera Constance

NAME: Vera Constance DOBSON

YEAR OF BIRTH: 1891

PLACE OF BIRTH: Hamilton

DATE OF ENLISTMENT: 27 April 1917

AGE AT ENLISTMENT: 25

UNIT: Australian Army Nursing Service

EMBARKED: 29 December 1916

TROOP SHIP: HMAT A32 Themistocles

FATE: Returned to Australia – September 1919

Vera Dobson was born in Hamilton in Hamilton in 1891, a daughter of the headteacher at Hamilton North State School, Thomas Bailey Dobson, and his wife Alma Inder. Thomas taught at the school from 1890 until 1893, when he transferred to Castlemaine. The family then moved to Cunninghame in Gippsland before Thomas gained employment at the Blind Institute in St Kilda Road, Melbourne.

Vera left school and began her nursing career. She spent four years at Melbourne Hospital (below)

MELBOURNE HOSPITAL Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/383601

She enlisted in April 1917 and embarked from Sydney the following month, bound for Plymouth, England. After arriving in England, she spent almost ten months at the Croydon War Hospital until 11 June, when Vera left for France with the 1st Australian Stationary Hospital. She went to Rouen to join the 1st Australian General Hospital (1st AGH). Vera is in the photograph below with other nurses from the 1st AGH. She is in the back row, fourth from the left.

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/E03440

In the meantime, the war ended, but Vera remained in Rouen until December 1918, when she returned to England, at Sutton Veny.

In March 1919, Vera reported for duty at AIF Headquarters in London for several weeks before returning to the Australian Army Nursing Service. She was then granted paid leave for almost two months to attend the Royal Sanitary Institute at 90 Buckingham Palace Road, London, to study sanitation and health. She also received a promotion from Staff Nurse to Sister. In July 1919, Vera boarded the Rugia, bound for Australia

Vera settled back into post-war life, living in St Kilda and Brighton. She became an infant welfare nurse and by 1923, she was in charge of the St Kilda Baby Health Centre.