Edith Jane Austen
Born 21 May 1878 - Died 9 Jun 1957
- Service number
- WWI 22/99 AWMM
- Also known as
- Edith Fane AWMM
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Last rank
- —
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
About
- Title
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- Forenames
- Edith Jane AWMM
- Surname
- Austen AWMM
- Ingoa
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- Also known as
- Edith Fane AWMM
- Service number
- WWI 22/99 AWMM
- Gender
- Female AWMM
- Iwi / Hapū / Waka / Rohe
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- Religion
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Images
Documents
About birth
- Birth
- 21 May 1878 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 Morrinsville, New Zealand AWMM
- Post war occupation
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- Next of kin
- WW1 Miss Eliza M. Austen (sister), care of Mr McAlpine, Tauhei, Morrinsville, New Zealand AWMM
- Relationship status
- Pre 10 Jul 1915 AWMM Single AWMM
Wars and conflicts
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
- Campaign
- 1914-1916 AWMM Egypt AWMM
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Service number
- WWI 22/99 AWMM
- Military service
- Promotions/ Postings/ Transfers
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Military decorations
- Medals and Awards
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Training and Enlistment
- Military training
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- Branch Trade Proficiency
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- Enlistment
- WW1 Nurse AWMM
- Age on enlistment
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- Occupation before enlistment
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Embarkations
- Embarkation details
- WW1 Hospital Ship No. 1, 1st Voyage from NZ AWMM Vessel was Maheno AWMM Nurse AWMM New Zealand Army Nursing Service Corps AWMM New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 1, "Maheno" AWMM
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
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Last known rank
- Last rank
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- Last rank
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Biographical information
- Edith Jane Austen was born in Auckland on 21 May 1878, the daughter of Martha Jane Sargent and Captain Arthur Henry Austen. She was one of seven children, with three brothers and three sisters. Her brothers followed their father into maritime careers and became master mariners. Edith never married.
Austen trained as a nurse at Auckland Hospital and completed her training in 1904. Her name appears on some nominal rolls as Edith Fane Austen.
During World War I, Austen served as a nurse aboard the hospital ships Salta and Maheno. She also worked at the 17th British General Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt, and at the New Zealand General Hospital at Brockenhurst, England. Her work in Egypt included caring for wounded soldiers arriving from Gallipoli.
Two documents attributed to Austen are held by Auckland War Memorial Museum and were made accessible through Pou Kanohi New Zealand at War.
In the war memoir We go through the Red Sea (MS-1999-57-1), Austen recalled travelling aboard Maheno in 1915 with nursing sisters bound for overseas service. She described rough seas, cramped accommodation and the intense heat of the Red Sea. She also recounted the efforts of the ship’s medical officers to save “Jock”, the bulldog mascot, after he was overcome by the heat, and her care of a shipboard cat affected by the conditions.
In the Letter from Edith Jane Austen to her nephews, [1940] (MS-1999-57-2), Austen wrote to Private Bruce Curling Friend and Captain Lyster Curling Friend while they were serving in Egypt during World War II. She reflected on her own experiences there about 25 years earlier, recalling Cairo’s bazaars, the Mediterranean, the pyramids and the Sphinx. She also described nursing wounded soldiers arriving from Gallipoli at a large converted hospital on the edge of the desert and working night duty in the tented wards, watching for haemorrhages among sleeping patients. Austen ended the letter by urging her nephews to remain steadfast and expressing the hope that they would return safely home.
After the war, Austen worked as a nurse at Kamo, where she may have cared for former servicemen affected by shell shock. During the 1920s she served as matron at Dilworth School in Auckland. She later built a house named Lovoni at Titirangi, where she retired. She continued to undertake community nursing and first-aid work and cared for a terminally ill fellow nurse.
Austen’s sister Lucy Violet Austen married Lionel Curling Friend in Suva, Fiji, on 25 May 1912. Their children were Lyster Curling Friend, born on 3 November 1913; Bruce Curling Friend, born on 14 March 1915; and Shirley Ruve Friend, born on 26 October 1921. Both Lyster and Bruce served during World War II.
Edith Jane Austen died on 9 June 1957. Her last recorded address was 59 Pah Road, Epsom, Auckland. Her ashes were scattered in the Soldiers Area at Waikumete Cemetery. AWMM - Edith died on 9th June 1957 and was cremated at Waikumete Cemetery on 12th June 1957, where her ashes were scattered in the Soldiers Area.Public - Patricia - Other relative - 9 November 2017 - Waikumete Cemetery records.
- Edith Jane Austen was born in Auckland on 21 May 1878, the daughter of Martha Jane Sargent and Captain Arthur Henry Austen. She was one of seven children, with three brothers and three sisters. Her brothers followed their father into maritime careers and became master mariners. Edith never married.
About death
- Death
- 9 Jun 1957 AWMM
- Date of death
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- Age at death
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- Place of death
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- Cause of death
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- Death notes
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- Cemetery
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- 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
- New Zealand Returned Army Nursing Sisters Association (Auckland) honours board, RSA Onehunga, Auckland AWMM
Related objects
Sources
- External links
- Military personnel file
https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R22275020
Further Reference - New Zealand Military Nursing: New Zealand Army Nursing Service - Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps
http://web.archive.org/web/20220126041404/https://www.nzans.org/index.htm
Further Reference - Website: No 1 New Zealand General Hospital, Brockenhurst
http://southernlife.org.uk/nzindex.htm
Further Reference - Austen album. Nevill, G T (Mrs), fl 1976 :Photographs collected by Sister Edith Jane Austen during World War I. Ref: PA1-o-026. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22704677
http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22704677
Further Reference
- Military personnel file
- References
- New Zealand Military Nursing - A History of the R.N.Z.N.C. Boer War to Present Day
- Information kindly provided by family
- New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force. (1914-1919). Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Volume I. Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
Vol1: 24 - 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.
- Austen, E.J. (1900-1940). Edith Jane Austen Photographs. Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tamaki Paenga Hira. PH-2003-46.
- McNabb, S. (2015). 100 years New Zealand military nursing : New Zealand Army nursing service : Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps, 1915-2015. Hawke's Bay, N.Z.: Sherayl McNabb.
- Beattie, P.J. & Pomeroy, M. (2013-2020). Onward : portraits of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (vols 1-5). Auckland, New Zealand: Fair Dinkum Publications
Vol. 4: Includes portrait - Tolerton, J. (2017). Make her praises heard afar : New Zealand women overseas in World War One. Wellington, New Zealand : Booklovers Books.
- Rogers, A. (2003). While You're Away: New Zealand Nurses at War 1899-1948. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press.
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