MARQUETTE DISASTER

Hokitika Guardian, 26 October 1932, Page 2

MARQUETTE DISASTER

NURSES’ MEMORIAL. SERVICE. . N.Z. ARMY SISTERS. WEBiANDTON, October 25. Commemorating -tli'e service and sacrifice of those' who served in the New Zealand ArgSy/ Nursing .Service during the ‘Great War, a nurses’ • memorial service was held at the Campanile on Sunday afternoon. The day was also tlhe .seventeenth anniversary of the sinking of the transport Marquette in -this-Aegean. tSea.. ’Wearing their war medals and decorations -av. number of the nur-ses wlio unit attended the service, which was conducted by Padre •Ri. 8. Watson, M.C. Miss Gladys Watkins played 1 the special musical ndmben; oil the National War Mcimoiv ial Carillon.

After offering prayer, Padre Watson praised the work which the sisters had done during the conflict. Off its value he could speak from personal experience ias well as from’ observation. “When we cam© under their care we were no longer numbers hut human beings who mattered, and I can testify to the fact/’ he said. He algo referred to the torpedoing of the Marquette, when ten nurses lost their lives. Before the service the nurses met at the Cenotaph anti place d * wreath thsrs. Of the 579 New Zealand nurses who servocl in the war, 15 gave their lives {including the ten lost in the Mar, quett&' disaster), 12 were decorated with! the Order of the Royal Red Cross, first class (one with bar), 64 with the recond class, and many were mentioned in dispatches.