Ethel Jessie Bowe
Born27 May 1906
Maldon
Died13 October 1961 (aged 55)
Heidelberg
NationalityAustralian
Occupationmatron
SuccessorEdna Nell Boyd

Ethel Jessie Bowe OBE ARRC (27 May 1906 – 13 October 1961) served with the Australian army as matron-in-chief. She was nursing in the UK and Egypt during World War two. She was awarded a Florence Nightingale medal and a Royal Red Cross. She became an honorary Colonel and an honorary nursing sister to Queen Elizabeth II.

Life

Bowe was born in 1906 in Maldon in Victoria. Her parents were Edith Jane (born Dorman) and her husband Abraham James Bowe, who was a bricklayer. Her parents were both born in Victoria and they brought up their eleven children in a cottage built by her grandfather. She qualified as a nurse in 1930 and as a midwife in 1931[1] when she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service Reserve.[1]

Major Ethel Jessie Bowe became a sister with the Australian Army Nursing Service on 19 December 1939 and she was called up in the following March and in May she embarked with 32 nurses. They thought that they were going to the middle east but en route they were redirected to England during the Battle for Britain. They worked in a hospital in Godalming in Surrey before they went to Kantara in Egypt.[2]

During 1941 she was promoted to be matron of the 2nd/2nd Australian General Hospital, initially temporarily.[2]

Lt Col Ethel Jessie Bowe and Lieutenants in Sydney at the 110 casualty clearing station on board the Manunda on 4 April 1945

In 1944 she was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross (ARRC). In 1947 German and Italian prisoners of War and internees were still being allowed back to their home countries and Bowe was involved with their departure in November. She was soon discharged in the following year. She worked in Austria and she rejoined the Australian military in 1951.[2] She became an honorary Colonel in 1952 and, in time, an honorary nursing sister to Queen Elizabeth II.[1]

In 1953 the Florence Nightingale medal was given by the International Committee of the Red Cross to three Australian matrons, Melbourne's Edith Johnson, Brisbane's Sarah Charlotte MacDonald and Bowe.[3][4] In 1960 she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of her work.[5]

Death and legacy

Bowe died in the Repatriation General Hospital in Melbourne in 1961. She was succeeded by Edna Nell Doig as matron-in-chief and director of the army nursing service. Doig also became an honorary colonel and the Queen's honorary nursing sister.[6] Bowe's wartime diaries from 1944 to 1944 are extant and held in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bassett, Jan, "Ethel Jessie Bowe (1906–1961)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 8 November 2023
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Bowe, Ethel Jessie (Major, b.1906 - d.1961)". www.awm.gov.au. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  3. ↑ "Nomination of Candidates for the FN medal in 1953" (PDF). Nomination of Candidates for the Medal: 11. 23 September 1952 – via International Committee of the Red Cross.
  4. ↑ "Three Matrons Honoured". Mercury. 18 May 1953. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  5. ↑ "Bowe, Ethel Jessie - Person - Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation". www.eoas.info. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  6. ↑ Bomford, Janette, "Edna Nell Doig (1915–1988)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 8 November 2023
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