MEMORIAL TO THE NURSES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2704, 25 February 1916, Page 3

MEMORIAL TO THE NURSES

At a meeting of the North Canterbury Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, which was held in Christchurch on Wednesday morning, brief reference was made to the desirability of a memorial to tho New Zealand nurses who have lost their lives in the services of the .Empire was made. The Hospital Committee had received a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel P. C. Fenwick, NewZealand Medical Corps, who was a member of the board before ho left for the front, suggesting that means be takento commemorate the bravery of the New Zealand nurses who wero drowned when the hospital transport Marquette was torpedoed. In reporting to the board the committee stated that it was not in a position to make any recommendation, as other proposals bad been made with the same object in view, particulars of which, it .was hoped, might be available when the board met.

The matter was also mentioned in the monthly report from Miss M. Thurston, lady superintendent of the hospital, who wrote: —"In reference to putting up a brass plate as a memorial to those nurses who brave Jives and deeds should be remembered for all generations, it is to me, personally (wlio trained three of them), and to all tho nurses of this staff, a cherished hopo that wo may ercct to their memory a memorial chapel in the grounds of this hospital. All other needs of the hospital have been fully considered during tho past years. For religious services, both for nurses and patients, a chapel will fill a long-felt want, and in my opinion a building of that kind will be a worthy and fitting memorial for those whom we mourn and honour." The chairman of the board (Mr. F. Horroll) said that the matter would comc before the board later. ■ 1 Mr. W. AV. Tanner suggested that the memorial' should also bo to tho nurses who had lost their lives in tho service of the hoard, as well as to those who were drowned in thoMarquette.