Eva Constance Mackay

Born 13 Feb 1902 - Died 8 Nov 2003

Service number: Jayforce 22812 AWMM
Also known as: —
Armed force / branch: Army AWMM
Last rank: Jayforce Colonel/Military AWMM
War: World War II, 1939-1945 AWMM
Jayforce, 1945-1948 AWMM

Eva Constance Mackay — Matron E. C. Mackay, A.R.R.C., of Hastings, awarded the R.R.C. Supplement to the Auckland Weekly News, 21 February 1945, p.26. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19450221-26-25. No Known Copyright Restrictions

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Biographical information

Colonel Eva Constance Mackay (22812) was born on 13 February 1902 at Porangahau, Hawke’s Bay, and trained as a nurse at Napier Hospital, registering in 1926. She joined the New Zealand Army Nursing Service and served overseas during World War II with 1 New Zealand General Hospital, working in Greece, Crete, Italy, and the Middle East.

In November 1943 Mackay was appointed Principal Matron, and in February 1946 became Matron-in-Chief of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service. She was the first New Zealand nurse to be appointed Honorary Nursing Sister to the Queen. Her leadership was widely recognised for its focus on staff welfare and professional standards in challenging operational conditions. Whānau recollections also recall Mackay’s time as Matron at Maadi Hospital, near Cairo, where she cared for wounded New Zealand service personnel, including her cousin Donald Thomas Gollan of 25 Battalion, who was wounded in Libya in 1943. Family-held diary entries describe Mackay supporting him during his recovery, including accompanying him to local markets and maintaining close contact until his repatriation to New Zealand later that year.

Following Japan’s surrender in 1945, Mackay served with Jayforce as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, holding the rank of Colonel and contributing to post-war medical and nursing administration in Japan.

Her service was recognised with numerous honours, including the Royal Red Cross, Associate Royal Red Cross, Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military), and being Mentioned in Despatches. Eva Constance Mackay died in Hastings on 8 November 2003, aged 101 (Profile written for “A Flight to Remember”, an Anzac Day 2026 initiative by Online Cenotaph and Air New Zealand).

Eva Mackay trained at Napier Hospital and was registered as a Nurse in 1926.

She became Principal Matron in November 1943 and Matron-in-Chief in February 1946 (Kendall and Corbett, p.159)

'Matron Mackay was the first New Zealand nurse to be honoured with the appointment as Honorary Nursing Sister to the Queen.' (Kendall and Corbett, p.159)

Eva Constance Mackay was born on 13 February 1902 at Porangahau, Hawke’s Bay, and trained as a nurse at Napier Hospital, registering in 1926. She joined the New Zealand Army Nursing Service and served overseas during World War II with 1 New Zealand General Hospital, working across the Middle East, Greece, Crete, Italy, and Egypt.

Contemporary newspaper reporting from the 1970s recorded Mackay’s reluctance to recount her wartime experiences, not because of the memories themselves, but because she felt strongly that her service was no different from that of other nursing sisters who faced the same conditions. Those reports describe her service during the withdrawal from Greece in 1941, when nursing staff were ordered to dismantle a tent hospital near Mount Olympus within hours as German forces advanced. Mackay recalled travelling through bombing raids with little more than the clothes she wore, and the exhaustion of long, continuous movements under threat.

She also described the realities of nursing in Egypt, where tent wards were buried deep to protect patients from bombs and sandstorms, and where limited staffing required nurses to work around the clock caring for wounded soldiers and patients suffering from infectious diseases. Despite these conditions, Mackay praised both staff discipline and patient morale.

In November 1943 she was appointed Principal Matron, and in February 1946 became Matron-in-Chief of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service. She was the first New Zealand nurse appointed Honorary Nursing Sister to the Queen. Following Japan’s surrender in 1945, Mackay served with Jayforce as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, contributing to post-war nursing administration in Japan with the rank of Colonel.

Her service was recognised with the Royal Red Cross, Associate Royal Red Cross, Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military), and a Mention in Despatches. Eva Constance Mackay died in Hastings on 8 November 2003, aged 102.

Ms Mona Corlett (nee Shaw), Sister NZ Army Nursing Service World War II (service Number 813461) has provided the following memories of Matron Mackay: "After reading recently of the death of Miss Eva Mackay my thoughts turned back to my time in Italy in the Army Nursing Service. Miss Mackay was our Matron-in-Chief, a well loved person, who always had the welfare of staff at heart. She regularly visited our hospitals attending to our needs and once during a freezing cold mid-winter period she declared warm battle dress was necessary and due to her efficency we were all outfitted in a short time.

I remember a time when kindness shone through efficency. Our Unit No 1 N Z General Hospital was stationed in the town of Molfetta waiting to be transferred to Senigallia where our Commanding Officer and staff were setting up a forward hospital. We had been there ten days, when two sisters, frustrated and impatient to move up, decided to take a little trip. One had an adored budgie which she had taken with her all through Greece and Crete and I was asked to look after him. They had been gone two days when we received our marching orders. Radio calls went out after Matron discovered the two were missing and when they failed to turn up, to my dismay, budgie and trunks were sent to base hospital. The rest of us proceeded to Ancona to board a ship to Senigallia.

Meanwhile the two sisters hitch hiking back to Molfetta after spending two days in Sicily were surprised when a staff car carrying our Matron-in-Chief, stopped. Miss Mackay alighted from the car and said "Are you aware your unit has moved - Get in!" Although our colleagues told us it was the longest and most silent trip they had ever had, their Matron-inChief did not take the matter further." AWMM

Sources

External links: Johnston, Sarah. World War Voices. Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira. First published: 5 March 2021.
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/features/anzac-2021/world-war-voices
Further Reference
J Force Wikipedia Page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Force
Further Reference
Romano, G. (2021, March 4). Jayforce: 75 years on. Auckland War Memorial Museum – Tāmaki Paenga Hira.
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/features/jayforce
Further Reference
N.Z. Nurses in Greece (Their Experiences told by Miss E. C. Mackay in the NBS Session "With the Boys Overseas"). New Zealand Listener 20 June 1941, p. 7.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/new-zealand-listener/1941/06/20/7
Further Reference
Johnston, Sarah (21 July 2025). With the Girls Overseas: Recordings of New Zealand nurses 1940—1946. Nga Taonga.
https://www.ngataonga.org.nz/explore-stories/stories/new-zealand-history/with-the-girls-overseas-recordings-of-new-zealand-nurses-19401946/
Further Reference
McNabb, S. (2022, April). New Zealand Army Nursing Service – Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps. NZANS. Archived from the Wayback Machine on 26 January 2023.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230126100532/https://www.nzans.org/
Further Reference
References: New Zealand Military Nursing - A History of the R.N.Z.N.C. Boer War to Present Day
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.
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.
Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. (1950). Nominal Roll Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force No. 16 (Embarkations from 1st January, 1946 to 30th June, 1948). Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
p.82
Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. (1941). Nominal Roll Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force No. 2 (Embarkations to 30th June, 1940). Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
p.118
Brocklebank, L.W. (1997). Jayforce : New Zealand and the military occupation of Japan, 1945-48. Auckland, N.Z.: Oxford University Press.
Parr, A. (2012). The occupiers : New Zealand veterans remember post-war Japan. Auckland, N.Z. : Penguin.
McKinney, J. (1952). Medical units of 2NZEF in Middle East and Italy. Wellington, N.Z.: Dept. of Internal Affairs, War History Branch.
McClymont, W. (1959). To Greece. Wellington, N.Z.: Department Internal Affairs, War History Branch.
Davin, D. (1953). Crete. Wellington, N.Z.: Department of Internal Affairs, War History Branch.
This record was part of “A Flight to Remember”, an Anzac Day 2026 commemorative partnership between Online Cenotaph and Air New Zealand, where service stories were shared onboard a dawn flight from Auckland to Sydney.
Rogers, A. (2003). While You're Away: New Zealand Nurses at War 1899-1948. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press.

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Eva Constance Mackay