The stunning stained glass window over the altar of Glen Innes’ Holy Trinity Anglican Church is among the best of its kind in the country, according to a visiting PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) student who is studying the depiction of wartime nurses in such commemorations.
Susan Kellett’s finely-focussed thesis is entitled, ‘The Commemoration and Memorialisation of Nurses after World War I and II in Stained Glass Windows of Australian Public Buildings’.
An encounter with the enthusiastic researcher unearths a fascinating history of army nursing in general and the church window in particular.
The thesis topic reflects a marriage of Ms Kellett’s interests. She has always had a very active interest in history, a love of stained glass windows and has been a nurse her entire career, having served in the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps.
Ms Kellett’s three-year mission to document how Australia remembers its army nurses is taking her around the country (mainly up and down the eastern seaboard) chasing up leads on where these women are portrayed. Her search takes her primarily to churches, and a request to all 60 dioceses which filtered down to clergymen and parishioners has generated hundreds of prospects.
Arguably the best-known depiction can be found in the Hall of Memory at the Australian Way Memorial, where the three-paned Napier Waller window depicts 15 members of the Australian Imperial Force from World War I, one of whom is in her grey uniform with red cape and white veil.
“Nurses were the only women who served in World War I,” Ms Kellett said.
“They served in France, and on the western and the eastern front.”
Ms Kellett said that while no nurses landed at Gallipoli, they were on hospital ships anchored just half a mile off-shore, treating the casualties of the carnage. There is anecdotal evidence of a nurse’s patient being killed by a sniper as she treated him, demonstrating the nurses’ proximity to the conflict.
While no Australian nurse serving in the Australian Imperial Force died as a direct result of enemy action (although one serving in the British Forces was lost at sea), a number were wounded and around five received the Military Medal.
“Of 1,455 war memorials (excluding windows) erected after World War I, only four have an image of a nurse,” Ms Kellett said.
“Windows have never been counted but it is estimated thousands of memorial windows were dedicated to soldiers after that war, and more again after World War II. Not all are like Holy Trinity’s, though.”
While stained glass windows in churches traditionally had a religious theme, in the wake of the Great War congregations started donating windows showing soldiers. Ms Kellett said that memorial monuments like statues and gates started to go out of vogue post-World War II when more utilitarian structures like parks, hospitals and schools gained favour.
Again the nurses missed out, but there were more depictions of them in windows.
Holy Trinity’s homage to those who served in World War II is described by Ms Kellett as “spectacular”. She made a detailed study of the window on Tuesday, equipping her to answer some questions from Pastor Chris Brennan on scenes included in the detailed window apart from the nurse, including the disabled plane from which the parachuted soldier escaped and a war-damaged cottage in the background with its window shutter awry.
Ms Kellett feels the latter is probably a nod to the Polish roots of the artist, immigrant John Radecki, who was 81 years of age when he created the church window while employed by well-known window manufacturer Ashwin & Co of Sydney. The window was installed in 1946.
Memorial windows continue to be created, but are now more likely to be donated by veterans groups to repatriation hospitals, according to Ms Kellett. There’s a subtle shift in the motivation behind these modern memorials, possibly now more one of grieving and thanks rather than adulation.
Ms Kellett still has some way to go in completing her thesis, which will hopefully go on to become the definitive source of information on its subject. She described doing a PhD as a lonely process, “but the rewards are considerable.”
She finds herself completely immersed in her work, based in Brisbane at the University of Queensland where she also spends one day a week on an international research project with the School of Nursing and Midwifery tracking nursing careers five years post-graduation. Ms Kellett said she enjoyed her visit to Glen Innes, where everyone was very hospitable and she received great support from the staff at her local base, the History House.
Of course Glen Innes has a strong nursing community with a long history of domestic and overseas service. It seems only fitting that one of the best memorialisation of such service can be found at a local church, drawing experts of the calibre of Ms Kellett.
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