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Cenotaph record

Grace Matilda Hetty Russell

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  • Service number
  • Also known as
    • De Courcy AWMM
    • de Courcy Public - Katherine Grace - Direct descendant - 29 December 2022 - Family spelling is always with a lower case 'd' - de Courcy
  • Armed force / branch
    • Army AWMM
    • Did not serve in the Army Public - Katherine - Direct descendant - 29 December 2022 - Grace's personal papers
  • Last rank
  • War
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Full length seated portrait of Grace Russell, later Grace de Courcy, the second New Zealand woman to qualify as a doctor, in graduation gown, photographed in Brussels in 1898. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1050-2. Restrictions on use may apply.

Full length seated portrait of Grace Russell, later Grace de Courcy, the second New Zealand woman to …

Identity

About

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  • Title
  • Forenames
    • Grace Matilda Hetty AWMM
    • Matilda Hetty Grace Public - Katherine Grace - Direct descendant - 29 December 2022 - I am her granddaughter. Death certificate
  • Surname
    Russell AWMM
  • Ingoa
  • Also known as
    • De Courcy AWMM
    • de Courcy Public - Katherine Grace - Direct descendant - 29 December 2022 - Family spelling is always with a lower case 'd' - de Courcy
  • Service number
  • Gender
    Female AWMM
  • Iwi / Hapū / Waka / Rohe
  • Religion

Civilian life

About birth

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  • Birth
    1874 AWMM
  • Date of birth
  • Place of birth
  • Birth notes
  • Address before enlistment
  • Post war occupation
  • Next of kin on embarkation
  • Relationship status
    1919 AWMM Married AWMM

Service

Wars and conflicts

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  • War
  • Campaign
  • Armed force / branch
    • Army AWMM
    • Did not serve in the Army Public - Katherine - Direct descendant - 29 December 2022 - Grace's personal papers
  • Service number
  • Military service
  • Promotions/ Postings/ Transfers

Military decorations

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  • Medals and Awards

Training and Enlistment

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  • Military training
  • Branch Trade Proficiency
  • Enlistment
  • Occupation before enlistment
  • Age on enlistment

Embarkations

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  • Embarkation details

Prisoner of war

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  • Capture details
  • Days interned
  • Liberation date
  • Liberation Repatriation
  • POW liberation details
  • POW serial number

Medical history

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  • Medical notes

Last known rank

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  • Last rank

Biographical information

Biographical information

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    • Daughter of John Benjamin Russell. Husband of Nevison De Courcy

      2nd woman from New Zealand to qualify as a doctor. Trained in Brussels.

      Originally from Auckland she worked for the International Quarantine Commission in the Suez and the Egyptian Public Health Service pre-WWI; treated injured Anzac soldiers bought in troop ships to Egypt during World War I AWMM
    • Husband's name - Nevinson William de Courcy


      Grace studied at the London School of Medicine for Women and the Royal Free Hospital. She qualified LRCP and LRCS from Edinburgh and MD (with Distinction) from Brussels in 1898.

      She worked for the International Quarantine Commission and the Egyptian Public Health Service 1905-1923. She did treat injured Anzac soldiers and also Armenian refugees in WW1 but not as a member of the Armed Forces Public - Katherine - Direct descendant - 29 December 2022 - Family papers
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Death

About death

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  • Death
    1967 AWMM
  • Date of death
  • Age at death
  • Place of death
  • Cause of death
  • Death notes
  • Cemetery
  • Cemetery name
  • Grave reference
  • Obituary
  • Memorial name
  • Memorial reference

Memorials

Memorial

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  • Memorial name

Roll of Honour

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Leave a tribute or memory of Grace Matilda Hetty Russell

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  • Dr Grace Russell was one of more than twenty pioneering Australian and New Zealand women doctors who sidestepped the official policy of denying them the right to enlist to work as surgeons, pathologists and medical officers during WWI. A colleague of Dr Agnes Bennett, they both worked to relieve the suffering of wounded soldiers arriving from the Gallipoli Peninsula.
    Public - Heather - Researcher - 29 March 2015
    Report 

Sources

Sources

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  • External links
    Papers Past. Digital New Zealand Newspapers.
    http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast
    Sources Used
  • References
    • Poverty Bay Herald (Gisborne) AWMM
      Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12427, 10 April 1911, Page 4 AWMM
    • Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand. Wellington, N.Z.: Watkins. AWMM
      p. 103 AWMM
    • Soutar, M. (2008). Nga tama toa = The price of citizenship : C Company 28 (Maori) Battalion 1939-1945. Albany, N.Z.: David Bateman. AWMM
    • Russell family history. Auckland War Memorial Museum Library. MS-591-3. AWMM
    • 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. AWMM
      p. 94 AWMM
    • Pat Clarkson Medical Practitioner Research Project (January 2014 - March 2022). This project identified Medical Practioners who served in WWI. AWMM

Contributors

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DateFirst namesLocationRelationshipContact
29 December 2022KatherineAucklandDirect descendant
29 December 2022Katherine GraceAucklandDirect descendant
29 March 2015HeatherAustraliaResearcher

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