Marjorie Watson's overseas service was recognised by the Taradale RSA. Photo / Warren Buckland.
Marjorie Watson's overseas service was recognised by the Taradale RSA. Photo / Warren Buckland.
Taradale's Marjorie Katherine Watson (nee Moore) was 24 when she signed up to serve overseas as a World War II Red Cross auxiliary army nurse.
On Tuesday her overseas service was recognised by the Taradale RSA and on Anzac Day she will wear her service medals to pay tribute to fellow servicemen who did not return.
Every year Marjorie dons her black coat with an astrakhan collar, six medals pinned to the left lapel and joins the returned servicemen and women at the local ANZAC service. Photo / Supplied.
Marjorie, 100, was born in 1919 and believes she is one of the few surviving NZ Red Cross Army nurses who served overseas.
Growing up in the small rural South Island community of Ruapuna, 25 miles from Ashburton, she enjoyed an idyllic, although fairly sheltered childhood, among a tight-knit farming community.
Encouraged by her patriotic aunt, a registered nurse, and egged on by her best friend Gwen, who had already volunteered as a Red Cross army auxiliary nurse, Marjorie (a keen Red Cross member) also signed up.
On September 3, 1939, Britain, France, New Zealand and Australia declared war on Germany. New Zealand Red Cross and the Order of St John created the Joint Council to perform the same tasks they had carried out during World War I.
For Marjorie, a short period of basic training followed at Burwood Military Hospital, Christchurch and on January 29, 1943, she signed up to serve overseas.
Marjorie Watson served overseas as a Red Cross nurse in WWII. Photo / Supplied.
It was also the day of her father's sudden death, for which Marjorie required special dispensation from the army to attend the funeral.
Within days of becoming a widow, her mother sadly bade farewell to her daughter, who was soon to embark overseas to an unknown destination and an uncertain future.
Marjorie's war adventure began by train and ferry from Ashburton to Wellington, then by train to a base in Auckland.
After filling in numerous forms, she was supplied with a nurse's white uniform, a white organza veil and a large red cape. From there she was put to work at the Army's Raventhorpe Convalescent Hospital.
Along with fellow WAACs, her thoughts were given over to an impending sea voyage and putting nursing skills into practice to do their "bit" for the war effort overseas, as part of 3rd Division, 1 Kiwi Coy.
After a few days finding their sea legs, the nurses were put to work for the rest of the voyage, performing first aid medical duties and attending to sick army personnel and arrived in New Caledonia.
In New Caledonia in WWII the mess and administration blocks were tents. Photo /Supplied.
Ashore at Noumea, the nursing contingent then travelled 200km north by army truck over a tortuous, dusty, potholed route, arriving hot, tired but relieved at their destination of 2 Convalescent Depot at Kalavere.
Here they treated the troops convalescing from skin infections/diseases, battle wounds, mental strain, intestinal problems, and a variety of tropical diseases contracted while fighting in the Pacific, such as, malaria, jungle rot, dengue fever. Patients were graded according to their disability.
At the hospital, many from the local population were treated for a variety of mainly tropical diseases. As most lived in primitive conditions, the Red Cross parcels distributed among them were eagerly anticipated to hand on to village families.
The nurses slept dormitory-style, under mosquito netting on camp beds, in tents initially, then in tropical huts. Free time was spent doing personal washing, ironing (no joke in the heat) writing letters and swimming.
While in Kalavere, Marjorie met her future husband, a handsome New Zealand Army Staff Sergeant, Ernest Watson. Ernest had contracted malaria whilst fighting in the Pacific and after treatment, was stationed at an Army base nearby.
Recurring bouts of malaria however, saw him invalided home to New Zealand. They kept in touch through their separation by letters, which during the war years were subject to strict censorship. These letters are still in Marjorie's possession today.
Marjorie returned to New Zealand in August 1944. There she spent a short time on leave, before being recruited with other army auxiliary nurses bound for Italy.
After a lengthy sea journey, they arrived at their destination of Senigallia, on the Adriatic Coast of Italy. They were assigned to No.1 NZ General Hospital, which had become the forward area for the reception of casualties before they were shipped off elsewhere.
In Senigallia, Marjorie experienced some hostility from the locals and in one incident, when out walking, stones were thrown and abuse hurled. When the war ended in 1945 and other personnel were repatriated home, Marjorie's war adventure was far from finished.
She and other medical colleagues stayed on to assist with the treatment and evacuation of the sick and wounded.
This task finally completed, she sailed back to New Zealand on the HMS ORION from Ancona, via Bombay in India.
