Andrea Grieve and Jennie Hamilton in the Nurses' Memorial Chapel at Christchurch Hospital. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
A new exhibition is shining a light on the World War 2 service of 101 Christchurch nurses, with personal profiles on each.
The exhibition is on show in the historic Nurses' Memorial Chapel at Christchurch Hospital, and includes images and artefacts but the central piece is a folder pulling together profiles on the 101 Christchurch nurses.
Andrea Grieve, a member of the chapel's museum sub-committee, spent several years compiling a profile on the each nurses who trained at Christchurch Hospital and served in World War 2.
Grieve said there had been very little information gathered about the individual women who served in World War 2 and she felt it was important their stories weren't lost.
She wanted to acknowledge the amazing work they did during the war.
"Just completely out of their comfort zone, coming from a well equipped hospital to facilities with a dirt floor. They occupied an old tuberculosis hospital somewhere and had to disinfect it from roof to floor. Just amazing, the deprivation and injuries they coped with," said Grieve.
The nurses served in a range of locations including Egypt, Italy and later in Japan as part of JForce.
Grieve's favourite stories was that of Quita O'Cinidi who served in Egypt.
"Quita O'Cinidi was on duty in a theatre in Egypt when they brought in Major Major, a white bull terrier who was a war mascot for the New Zealand Infantry. He had a shrapnel wound in his rump. He was operated on in theatre and had it removed.
"I believe it was because of this, she was so impressed with the dog, that later bull terriers became her life. She bred and showed bull terriers. She became a world authority on bull terriers."
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Some of the nurses also helped tend to the wounds of those injured in the 1943 Bari air raid in Italy.
"The Luftwaffe bombed the Bari Harbour which was full of ships and there was an American ship which was storing Mustard gas, which nobody knew about. So there were a lot of injuries but they didn't know what they were. They could have done preventative stuff but a lot of sailors died, and a lot of local people died."
About 1000 military and merchant marine personnel and another 1000 civilians were killed as a result of the attack at Bari.
The mustard gas on board a cargo ship was covered up and denied until US records were declassified in 1959, and remained little known until 1967.
Museum sub-committee member, Jennie Hamilton, said the exhibition was developed after they saw how much work Andrea had put in to developing the profiles.
"The committee decided the exhibition would be a good way to pull all the hard work together, and put it in a wider context."
Grieve said the profiles are a living document and she would love to add in facts or new people as new information becomes available.
The exhibition is on at the Nurses' Memorial Chapel at Christchurch Hospital until Sunday, 7 September and the profiles will be digitalised and available on the chapel's website soon.
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