| [Index] |
| Minnie HOBLER (1875 - 1962) |
| nurse in WW1 |
| Children | Self + Spouses | Parents | Grandparents | Greatgrandparents |
| Minnie HOBLER (1875 - 1962) | Francis Helvetius HOBLER (1825 - 1889) | George HOBLER (1800 - 1882) | James Francis Helvetius HOBLER (1765 - 1844) | |
| Mary FURBY (1765 - 1846) | ||||
| Ann TURNER (1801 - 1867) | John A TURNER (1759 - ) | |||
| Mary TREMLETT (1763 - ) | ||||
| Jessie Ann LEARMONTH (1838 - 1910) | Alexander LEARMONTH (1809 - 1874) | John Livingston LEARMONTH (1783 - 1863) | ||
| Margaret WATSON (1788 - 1872) | ||||
| Mary Ann HORNCASTLE (1820 - 1838) | ||||
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| b. 21 Jul 1875 at Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia |
| d. 29 Jul 1962 at Bromley, Kent, England aged 87 |
| Parents: |
| Francis Helvetius HOBLER (1825 - 1889) |
| Jessie Ann LEARMONTH (1838 - 1910) |
| Events in Minnie HOBLER (1875 - 1962)'s life | |||||
| Date | Age | Event | Place | Notes | Src |
| 21 Jul 1875 | Minnie HOBLER was born | Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia | 1875/C003310 | ||
| 25 Jan 1889 | 13 | Death of father Francis Helvetius HOBLER (aged 63) | Queensland, Australia | 1889/C004916 | |
| 28 Apr 1910 | 34 | Death of mother Jessie Ann LEARMONTH (aged 72) | Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia | 1910/C002965 | |
| 14 Nov 1914 | 39 | Enlisted Australian Imperial Forces | |||
| 05 Dec 1914 | 39 | Embarked | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | ||
| 21 Sep 1916 | 41 | Mentioned in dispatches | |||
| 14 Jan 1917 | 41 | Detached form duty | |||
| 14 Jan 1917 | 41 | Returned to Australia | |||
| 24 Apr 1917 | 41 | Discharged | Gastric Ulcer | ||
| 29 Jul 1962 | 87 | Minnie HOBLER died | Bromley, Kent, England | ||
| Personal Notes: |
|
Trained at Brisbane Hospital - paid 3 pounds per year, accommodation and uniforms provided.
WWI - Nursing Sister Date of Enlistment: 21/11/1914 1914-1916 Egypt 1916-1917 France Date of Return to Australia: 14/01/1917 During WWI Minnie was mentioned in dispatches for bravery under fire. She went into the fields to treat the wounded as there were no stretcher bearers. On one occasion she carried a large officer from the field. Later she herself apparently underwent a hernia operation. Rank: sister | Unit: No 3 AAH | Service: Army | Honour/award: Mention in Dispatches (Source: London Gazette, 21 June 1916, page 6184, position 38; and Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 21 September 1916, page 2624, position 46) Testimonials signed by Winston Churchill. After the war Minnie worked at an invalid home, approx. 1917 onwards. She lived on Townsend Island for a period with the Higginson family and later went nursing in Victoria where she was a matron at a hospital in Shepperton. Minnie had her own private hospital in Kew. Hilda [nee Stretton] and sister Mona [nee Stretton], daughters of Agnes Hobler, worked for their Aunt in Kew as nurses. Mona in general nursing and Hilda in the operating theater. When Minnie was 60 she left Australia for England, and nursed during the Blitz. Working as a civilian volunteer, Minnie was caught in an explosion but the only injury was a broken finger. She was eventually sent to an Air Force Station in Southern England and later received a war pension, living in Bromely Road, Kent ENGLAND. Other highlights of Minnie's life include a sea voyage as a nurse with Harold Learmonth; and as a private nurse for a wealthy gentleman whom she travelled throughout Europe. Minnie was an avid photographer and an album of shots taken while serving as a nurse in Egypt during WWI has been preserved. Minnie never married. She died of a cerebral infarction; thrombosis of right middle cerebral artery after suffering a bout of bronchopneumonia. A postmortem without inquest was perfromed to determine cause of death. Trained at Brisbane Hospital - paid 3 pounds per year, accommodation and uniforms provided. Abode 1961-1962: 85 Bromley Rd, Shortlands, Ravensbourne, Kent (Surrey Publication Year: 1961 Directory County: Kent, Surrey Page Number: 8134 and Death Certificate) Minnie Hobler Rank Staff Nurse Unit 1 Australian General Hospital (November 1914) Ship Name HMAT Kyarra Ship number A55 Date of embarkation 5 December 1914 Place of embarkation Melbourne Honours and awards (gazetted) Minnie Hobler Minnie Hobler was awarded the following honours: Mention in Despatches Service Army Rank Sister Unit No 3 AAH Conflict First World War Date of London Gazette 21 June 1916, page 6184, position 38 Date of Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 21 September 1916, page 2624, position 46 http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/imagine.asp?B=5265637&I=1&SE=1 Gastric Ulcer From East Melbourne Historical Society http://emhs.org.au/person/hobler/minnie HOBLER, Minnie Submitted by Administrator on 11 January 2013 - 3:12pm Family name: HOBLER Given names: Minnie Gender: Female Date of birth: 1875 Birth Rockhampton, Queensland East Melbourne addresses 1914 "Winfield", 340 Albert Street, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Military service: WW1 Rank: Staff Nurse 1914; promoted to Sister from 1 December 1915 Military units: Australian Army Nursing Service 1 Australian General Hospital 3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital No 6 British Stationary Hospital No 3 British General Hospital Military casualty: Returned to Australia March 1917, permanently unfit Date of death: 1962 Death Bromley, Kent, United Kingdom Decorations: Mentioned in Dispatches 1916 1914-15 Star British War Medal Victory Medal Biographical notes: Minnie Hobler was born in 1875 in Rockhampton, Queensland. She was the ninth of the eleven children of Francis Helvetius Hobler (1825-1889) and his wife Jessie Ann (nee Learmonth) (1838-1910). Minnie's forebears on both sides were pioneer settlers in the colonies - Van Dieman's Land and New South Wales for her Hobler grandfather George, and Tasmania and Victoria for her Learmonth grandfather Andrew. Both families experienced prosperous times and financial hardship but by the time Minnie was born in 1875, her father was a substantial landowner at Westwood near Rockhampton. He died in 1889, and his widow and eldest son (also Francis Helvetius) ran the property, 'Bucknalla'. Whatever the impetus to take a career in nursing - loss of young siblings, a strong spirit of pioneering and public mindedness inherited from her family - Minnie left the family property and trained as a nurse at the Brisbane General Hospital from late 1904 to 1907. She completed the registration requirements for the Australasian Trained Nurses Association and subsequently the Royal Victorian Trained Nurses Association. War Service Nursing was a mobile profession and Minnie's family had Victorian connections both through the Learmonths and the professional interests of her brother Francis (later named next of kin on her enlistment forms). After nine years at Brisbane General Hospital, she came to work in Melbourne in 1913 or 1914. She appears on the 1914 electoral roll as living at 340 Albert St, East Melbourne, 'Winfield', which was a home to a number of nurses. Within three months of war being declared, she applied to join the Australian Army Nursing Service. She was the first of her siblings to enlist. By this time Minnie had accumulated seven years experience as a trained nurse in hospital and private nursing. She cited on her application supervisory experience in various wards, hospital housekeeping, operating theatres, and infectious diseases. Minnie formally enlisted on 14 November 1914, and sailed later that month with the 1st Australian General Hospital on the official hospital ship "Kyarra". Among the nurses onboard was a group with East Melbourne connections, including Bertha McKinnell also from 340 Albert St, and Eleanor Kendall and Estelle Lee-Archer from Crathie House. A group of friends and colleagues were on an adventure together. The "Kyarra" travelled via India, the Red Sea and Suez and arrived in Cairo in January 1915. 1 Australian General Hospital was set up in the Heliopolis Palace Hotel, outside Cairo, and proceeded to treat a dreadful onslaught of casualties from Gallipoli. The numbers were so great that several auxiliary hospitals were set up elsewhere. Promoted to Sister in December 1915, Minnie worked at the No 3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital, which comprised a series of shelters roofed in with matting built over tennis courts on the Heliopolis sporting centre. She also made a rapid turn around trip from Egypt to Australia in early 1915, accompanying wounded soldiers on the "Kyarra", the same ship on which she had sailed several months earlier. She was an avid photographer, and an album of her photographs from her period in Egypt is still in family hands. Sister Hobler was mentioned in despatches for her work at No 3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital. She told her family that the award was for bravery under fire, when she went into the field to treat the wounded as there were no stretcher bearers. She also recounted carrying a large officer from the field of battle. 1 AGH was moved from Egypt to France in early 1916 to deal with the escalating casualties in the Western Front. When the unit arrived in Rouen in April 1916, Minnie was detached for duty with British hospitals in the north of France, first to No 6 Stationary Hospital in Havres, then No 6 General Hospital in coastal Le Treport (calculated to have 10 000 hospital beds), and then Frevent. In Frevent she became ill. She was admitted to No 6 Stationary Hospital in Etaples in November 1916 and a gastric ulcer was diagnosed. She was sent to England via Calais, and admitted to the Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service Hospital in Vincent Square London. A board of British medical officers declared her unfit for service at home or abroad for some months. The specific cause of her condition, they determined, was food and stress brought about by her military service. Minnie was repatriated back to Australia on the hospital ship "Kanowna". On her return to Melbourne, her case was considered by another medical board at the 11 Australian General Hospital. The doctors concurred with the previous board. Minnnie Hobler was permanently unfit for military service, but she was able to earn her living at her profession. She was discharged in April 1917. Several months later she attended a Red Cross Society meeting in country Victoria, and may have spoken on her war experiences (Geelong Advertiser, 13 August 1917). After the War Minnie resumed her profession as a nurse on her return. She was matron of Guildford Hospital in Shepparton in the early 1920s, then of her own private hospital, Gracemere, in A'Beckett St, Kew in the mid 1920s. She also travelled overseas as nurse/companion several times, including with her cousin Harold Learmonth of Hamilton, Victoria. At the age of 60, about 1935, she left Australia to live in the United Kingdom. After war broke out, she nursed during the Blitz as a civilian volunteer. Her letters to family in Rockhampton, which were occasionally published in the local papers, described in some detail living conditions, precautions against invasion and air raids. She was injured in one attack, but her fur coat (apparently the objective of the Nazi attack according to her neighbours) was saved (Central Queensland Herald, 14 August 1941). She also spent time at an air force station in southern England. Minnie returned to Australia after the war, living for a time again in Kew. She was living in England, in Ravensbourne Kent, when she died aged 87. |
| Source References: |
| 18. Type: E-mail Message, Abbr: e-mails general pool, Title: e-mails general pool |
| - Reference = Janet Scarfe 4 Jul 2013 (Name, Notes) |
| - Notes: I am involved with the East Melbourne Historical Society. The Society is researching every one with East Melbourne who served in WW1, and I am doing the nurses because I am an historian and have a particular interest in army nurses who served in WW2 and by association I suppose those in WW1.
Minnie Hobler is one on my list (presently 30, it may grow a little). She lived at 340 Albert St, East Melbourne in 1914 when she enlisted. A number of nurses lived at that house, 'Winfield', which was an easy walk to St Vincent's Hospital and hospitals in East Melbourne. I have been through her service record like you, and there are numerous references to her in newspapers via trove. One suspects she was dismayed to have been invalided back in 1917. I can't see any reference in her service record including the medical board to a hernia operation though she did have surgery for her appendix and fibroids in 1914. I was intrigued to read the details about her bravery in the field and wonder if you could share the source, so I could quote in the article. It was also be great to see some pics from the album you mention, so we could include something in the article on her. (My aunt left diaries and hundreds of pics form her overseas service in WW2, so exciting to see them.) She sounds like a prolific letter writer - do any remain? |