I AM THE GREAT NIECE OF MABEL. MY GRANDMOTHER, EDITH ALICE JAMIESON WAS HER SISTER.THE MEMORIA L PLAQUE FROM KUMARA HOSPITAL WAS GIVEN BY ME TO THE NURSES MEMORIAL CHAPEL AT CHRISTCHURCH HOSPITAL FOR DISPLAY PURPOSES. MY COUSIN LORRAINE WILSON HAS MADE AN ERROR IN THINKING THAT MY SISTER LORNA WILSON IS DECEASED.SHE IS INFACT STILL WORKING ON OUR FAMILY HISTORY. UNFORTUNATELY IT WAS ANOTHER SISTER WHO WAS ALSO A NURSE, BARBARA WHO DIED AS THE RESULT OF AN ACCIDENT IN 1968. MY FATHER FRANCIS JAMIESON WILSON WAS A DOCTOR IN WESTPORT UNTIL HIS DEATH AND TWO OF HIS CHILDREN WERE NURSES.

I have only recently learned from my cousin Sandra that Mabel was our great-great-aunt; Mabel's brother Thomas married our great-grandmother. The nurses' memorial chapel in Christchurch has always been a special place to me. But now it is more special. A hospital ship should have been provided for the medical and nursing staff on the Marquette. We will remember them.

In February I wrote a short family history of my Great Aunt, Mabel Elizabeth Jamieson, who drowned in the Marquette disaster on 23 October 1915. A cousin, Lorna Wilson, and a teacher at St Andrews, Christchurch, had prepared an Ancestry search of the Jamieson and Wilson families in 1986. Sadly she died in a car accident shortly after. This note is to honour her and Great Aunt Mabel whose memory was kept alive as part of our family's oral history by my father, George Wilson, who moved to Australia from NZ after WWII. Now remembered, never forgotten.

My great grandmother, Lydia, was married to Mabel's brother, Thomas. They named their daughter after Mabel, but she grew up being called "Dolly". Lydia's only brother, Stephen Charles Hartley, was killed in the Battle of the Somme on 15 October 1916. The deaths of a beloved sister and brother would have brought much sorrow to the family. "Thank you for sacrificing your today to give us a tomorrow in a better world. We will never forget"

In memory of Mabel Elizabeth Jamieson on behalf of nurses and midwives on the West Coast. We will remember you always.