Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

World War 1, Uniform, Australian Army Nursing Service, EDIS, 1918

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Parade Uniform of Sister Edis of 2 Casualty Clearing Station AIF with medal ribbons for service in World War 1.

Historical information

Margaret Dorothy (Dot) Edis was born on 19 April 1890 at Kyabram, Victoria. The family moved to Kalgoorlie in 1896. `Dot’ began training as a nurse at Coolgardie Hospital in 1911, but transferred to Kalgoorlie Hospital and completed training in December 1914.

On 10 August 1915, Edis was appointed a staff nurse in the Australian Army Nursing Service. She was attached to an auxiliary hospital in Egypt before moving to the Western Front in April 1916. She worked in British and Australian hospitals and the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station and rising to the rank of sister in October 1918.

After five years at the Anzac Hostel at Freshwater Bay, Edis commenced a refresher course in the nursing of women and children at Fremantle Hospital. After training in midwifery and child welfare at King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women she took charge of the postnatal ward and specialised in caring for premature babies.
Called up in July 1940 for full-time duty in the Citizen Military Forces and later the AIF, Edis served as principal matron, Western Command until April 1943. Under wartime manpower regulations she returned to KEMH. In January 1948 she was appointed matron of the Home of Peace, Subiaco. Promising to stay for two years she insisted on urgent and sustained improvements and remained for eighteen.

Matron Edis was remembered by a wartime colleague as `brisk, eager and capable’. Her nurses considered her `a strict disciplinarian’ but `fair’. In 1953 she was presented with Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation medal and in 1954 was appointed MBE for services to the nursing profession. The International Committee of the Red Cross awarded her the Florence Nightingale medal in 1965. Next year she retired and died on 14 August 1981.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-54-349

Links to additional resources

Service Summary

Australian Dictionary of Biography

Virtual War Memorial

Australian Women's Register

Last modified

Thursday, 24 July, 2025

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