Annie Buckley, MBE ARRC
In the hallway of my house in Wellington hangs a brass gong that was bought in a market in Cairo over 100 years ago. It hangs as a silent reminder of a time and a place, literally, a world away.
The gong was purchased and brought back to New Zealand by Annie Buckley who had travelled to the Middle East as a nursing sister with NZ troops fighting in the First World War. This is her story.
Annie was born on July 27, 1878 in Canterbury. She grew up in a rural family and like her brothers and sisters became a strong, practical, and able member of the community. Annie was raised in a family that held education and intellect in high regard, and like her siblings was raised to not be afraid to ask questions or to assert herself, but always to do so politely.
In 1904, aged 26, after training as a nurse at Waimate, South Canterbury, Annie passed the state nursing exam and became a registered nurse. Working at Waimate, when war came in 1914 she was quick to volunteer when nurses were called for.
Nurses from across NZ argued strongly to be included in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Seven had sailed with NZ troops to Samoa in August 1914 but returned after several months. The New Zealand Army Nursing Service (NZANS) was formally established in 1915 after the Army Council in London accepted NZ’s offer of 50 nurses in January of that year.
Those first 50 nurses were deliberately selected from hospitals across NZ, they were all unmarried, all pakeha, all had at least 6 years of nursing experience and their average age was 27. The contingent sailed on April 8, 1915 on SS Rotorua from Wellington and among them was Sister Annie Buckley who had volunteered for service on March 26, 1915.
The nurses initially sailed to the UK, but in fairly short order found themselves in transit to Egypt where they were staffing hospitals set up to handle the casualties coming from the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Annie found herself being rotated between service on hospital ships transporting the wounded away from Gallipoli, and in hospitals in Egypt.
Annie eventually became matron of the Morant Hospital in Brockenhurst, England, and was made an Associate of the Royal Red Cross (ARRC) for her work there. Annie was also twice Mentioned in Despatches for her service.
After the war, Annie returned to NZ where she resumed her nursing work, became an accomplished beekeeper, and was active in church and nursing associations.
Annie led community and nursing organisations throughout the 1930s and the war years. Her work in nursing training and leadership was recognised in 1947 with her creation as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
The NZ nurses were the first NZ women to be deployed to a war zone. They initially faced a hostile reception from male medical staff who questioned their abilities and commitment. However the first 50 nurses had been well selected and despite having to wear traditional heavy, restrictive nursing uniforms and work in, what to them, were foreign and at times horrific environments, they rapidly proved themselves practical, hardworking, and more than up to the task.
Whilst in the Mediterranean, Annie kept a diary and it is in this that she recorded a trip to Cairo on May 4, 1916, during which she purchased a brass gong. That gong hung in her house, then in her nephew’s who served with the New Zealand Army in WW2 and The Korean War, before it came to hang on my wall. I served with the New Zealand Army in Timor Leste and that gong, purchased by a remarkable pioneering nurse, unites us all in service.