Ettie Annie Rout
Born 24 Feb 1877 - Died 17 Sept 1936
- Service number
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- Also known as
- Ettie Annie Hornibrook AWMM
- Armed force / branch
- Civilian AWMM
- Last rank
- Civilian AWMM New Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood AWMM
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
About
- Title
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- Forenames
- Ettie Annie AWMM
- Surname
- Rout AWMM
- Ingoa
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- Also known as
- Ettie Annie Hornibrook AWMM
- Service number
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- Gender
- Female AWMM
- Iwi / Hapū / Waka / Rohe
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- Religion
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Images
Documents
About birth
- Birth
- 24 Feb 1877 AWMM
- Date of birth
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- Place of birth
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- Birth notes
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- Address before enlistment
- WW1 Unknown AWMM Christchurch, New Zealand AWMM
- Post war occupation
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- Next of kin
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- Relationship status
- Unknown AWMM Single AWMM
Wars and conflicts
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
- Campaign
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- Armed force / branch
- Civilian AWMM
- Service number
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- Military service
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- Promotions/ Postings/ Transfers
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Military decorations
- Medals and Awards
- Mentioned in Despatches (MiD) AWMM
MiD. London Gazette 6th July 1917, page 6774 "Hon. Sec. N.Z. Volunteer Nursing Sisters". The entire 6th July 1917 London Gazette Supplement Despatch is written by A.J. Murray, General, Commander-in-Chief, Egyptian Expeditionary Force and relates to the Egyptian Campaign. AWMM
Training and Enlistment
- Military training
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- Branch Trade Proficiency
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- Enlistment
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- Age on enlistment
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- Occupation before enlistment
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Embarkations
- Embarkation details
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Prisoner of war
- Capture details
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- Days interned
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- Liberation date
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- POW liberation details
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- Liberation Repatriation
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- POW serial number
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Medical history
- Medical notes
- Died of Sickness, Cause of Death AWMM
Overdose of quinine AWMM
Last known rank
- Last rank
- Civilian AWMM
New Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood AWMM - Last rank
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Biographical information
- In July 1915, during the Gallipoli campaign, Ettie Rout set up the New Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood and invited women between the ages of 30 and 50 to go to Egypt to care for New Zealand soldiers. In spite of government opposition, she sent the first batch of 12 volunteers to Cairo that October.
Ettie Rout arrived in Egypt in February 1916 and immediately noticed the soldiers' high venereal disease rate. She saw this as a medical, not a moral, problem and one that should be approached like any other disease – with all available preventive measures. She recommended the issue of prophylactic kits and the establishment of inspected brothels, and she tried to persuade the New Zealand Medical Corps officers to this view, with no success.
Believing that the army was not looking after the men well enough, she opened the Tel El Kebir Soldiers' Club, and later a canteen at El Qantara, to provide better rest and recreation facilities and better food. For this work she was mentioned in dispatches and in the Australian official war history.
In June 1917 the venereal disease problem was still very bad, so she went to London to push the New Zealand Medical Corps into adopting prophylactic measures. She combined the work of several researchers to produce her own prophylactic kit, containing calomel ointment, condoms and Condy's crystals (potassium permanganate). She sold these at the New Zealand Medical Soldiers Club, which she set up at Hornchurch near the New Zealand Convalescent Hospital.
At the end of 1917 the New Zealand Expeditionary Force adopted her kit and made it a free and compulsory distribution to soldiers going on leave. Ettie Rout received no credit for her role in the kit's development and adoption, and for the duration of the war the Cabinet banned her from New Zealand newspapers under the War Regulations. Mention of her brought a potential £100 fine after one of her letters, suggesting kits and hygienic brothels, had been published in the New Zealand Times. Ironically, this letter had been instrumental in the decision of the minister of defence, James Allen, to approve the issue of the kit. Others, particularly women's groups, accused her of trying to make vice safe. Lady Stout led a deputation of women to ask the prime minister, William Massey, to put an end to Rout's Hornchurch club. AWMM
About death
- Death
- 17 Sept 1936 RARO19360250
- Date of death
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- Age at death
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- Place of death
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- Cause of death
- Died of Sickness AWMM
- Death notes
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- Cemetery
- Cook Islands Christian Church (London Missionary Society Church), Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands AWMM
- Cemetery name
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- Grave reference
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- Obituary
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- Memorial name
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- Memorial reference
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Memorial
- Memorial name
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Sources
- External links
- Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3r31/rout-ettie-annie
Sources Used - London Gazette.
http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/home.aspx?geotype=London
Sources Used - Archives New Zealand. Photograph. A group of 1 NZEF [New Zealand Expeditionary Force] infantrymen with [Ettie Rout], August 1918.
https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R22311847
Further Reference - NZSexual Health Society (NZHS). Margaret Sparrow. 2010. Restoring her grave.
http://www.nzshs.org/ettie_rout.html
Further Reference - Christchurch City Libraries. People - biography.
http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Society/People/R/Rout-Ettie/
Further Reference - Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Published on Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand online.
http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/default.asp?Find_Quick.asp?PersonEssay=3R31
Further Reference - Ministry of Culture and Heritage, New Zealand History online. (2007). Ettie Rout, safe sex campaigner.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/memorial/ettie-rout
Further Reference - Rout, E. (n.d.). Safe marriage and a return to sanity. Digital version available from Project Guttenberg.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page?sess=25607a1aa5
Further Reference - Wikidata Entity
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5405004
Further Reference - Martin, H. (23 April 2023). Forgotten Anzac heroine: Memorial unveiled for wartime safer-sex campaigner. stuff.co.nz
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300855479/forgotten-anzac-heroine-memorial-unveiled-for-wartime-safersex-campaigner
Further Reference - Cook Islands Online Cenotaph
https://www.cookislandsonlinecenotaph.com/
Further Reference - MISSION OF MERCY. Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13821, 22 October 1915, Page 7
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH19151022.2.51
Further Reference
- Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.
- References
- Civilian service: This individual did not formally enlist or serve as a member of the armed forces but has been included in Online Cenotaph in recognition of their contribution during wartime. Existing military service fields have been used to record their involvement where appropriate and should not be interpreted as evidence of formal military service.
- Tolerton, J. (2015). Ettie Rout : New Zealand's safer sex pioneer. [Auckland] : Penguin Books.
- Tolerton, J. (1992). Ettie: a life of Ettie Rout. Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin.
- Weddell, H. (2016). Soldiers from the Pacific : the story of Pacific Island soldiers in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in World War One. Wellington, New Zealand : Defence of New Zealand Study Group.
- Service Women Project: Sponsorship to research this record was kindly provided by the Auckland Returned Services Association, Returned Servicewomen's Branch; Marjorie Traill, Dorothy Grant, Daphne Shaw and Margaret Woollett.
- Harper, G., Clements, C., & Johns., R. (2019). For King and Other Countries: The New Zealanders Who Fought in Other Services in the First World War. Auckland, New Zealand: Massey University Press.
- Tolerton, J. (2017). Make her praises heard afar : New Zealand women overseas in World War One. Wellington, New Zealand : Booklovers Books.
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