Ida Grace Willis
Born 29 Dec 1881 - Died 7 Mar 1968
- Service number
- WWI 22/173 AWMM
- WWI 0/35 AWMM
- Also known as
- Lizzie Ida Grace Willis AWMM
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Last rank
- WW1 Matron in Chief/Military AWMM New Zealand Army Nursing Service AWMM
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
About
- Title
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- Forenames
- Ida Grace AWMM
- Surname
- Willis AWMM
- Ingoa
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- Also known as
- Lizzie Ida Grace Willis AWMM
- Service number
- WWI 22/173 AWMM
- WWI 0/35 AWMM
- Gender
- Female AWMM
- Iwi / Hapū / Waka / Rohe
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- Religion
- Church of England, Christian AWMM
Images
Documents
About birth
- Birth
- 29 Dec 1881 AWMM
- 29 Dec 1881 WWII NZANS Roll
- Date of birth
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- Place of birth
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- Birth notes
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- Address before enlistment
- WW1 Wellington, New Zealand AWMM
- Post war occupation
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- Next of kin
- WW1 Mrs A. Willis (mother), Weld Street, Wadestown, Wellington, New Zealand AWMM
- Relationship status
- Pre 15 Aug 1914 AWMM Single AWMM
Wars and conflicts
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
- Campaign
- —
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Service number
- WWI 22/173 AWMM
- WWI 0/35 AWMM
- Military service
- —
- Promotions/ Postings/ Transfers
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Military decorations
- Medals and Awards
- Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) AWMM
OBE 1944 AWMM - Associate Royal Red Cross (ARRC) AWMM
- Efficiency Decoration (ED) AWMM
- Mentioned in Despatches (MiD) Twice AWMM
London Gazette 16th March 1916; 21 June 1916 AWMM - Brought to notice of the Secretary of State for War (S.) AWMM
19 Aug 1919 AWMM
Featherston Hospital AWMM
- Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) AWMM
Training and Enlistment
- Military training
- 1910 AWMM
Place of Nursing training and date of qualification / registration AWMM - Branch Trade Proficiency
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- Enlistment
- WW1 27 Aug 1914 AWMM
Age 32 AWMM - Age on enlistment
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- Occupation before enlistment
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Embarkations
- Embarkation details
- WW1 HMNZT 1 or HMNZT 2 AWMM Vessel was Moeraki or Monowai AWMM Nurse AWMM New Zealand Army Nursing Service Corps AWMM Samoan Advance Party AWMM
- WW1 Hospital Ship No. 1, 1st Voyage from NZ AWMM Vessel was Maheno AWMM New Zealand Army Nursing Service Corps AWMM New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 1, "Maheno" AWMM
2nd Embarkation 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
- WW1 Matron in Chief/Military AWMM
New Zealand Army Nursing Service AWMM - Last rank
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Biographical information
- Lizzie Ida Grace Willis was born in Wellington on 29 December 1881, one of 13 children of Alexander James Willis, secretary to Cabinet and clerk of the Executive Council, and Amelia Annie Nicholson. The family initially lived in Thorndon before moving to Johnsonville, where Ida attended Johnsonville School. She later studied at Fitzherbert Terrace School and Wellington Girls’ High School.
Willis trained as a nurse at Wellington District Hospital from 1907 to 1910 and registered as a nurse at the age of 28. She remained at Wellington Hospital, working first as a ward sister and later as a night sister. After the death of her father in 1910, she travelled to Australia with her mother and sister, trained as a midwife at the Women’s Hospital in Melbourne and worked at Bulli Cottage Hospital in New South Wales. She also gained a certificate from the Royal Sanitary Institute in London. By 1912 she had returned to Wellington and was working in a private hospital with fellow nurse Louise Brandon.
When World War I began in August 1914, Willis was holidaying in Fiji and became stranded there. When the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Advance Party called at Fiji en route to German Samoa, she joined the nursing contingent and embarked on 27 August 1914. She became the seventh New Zealand nurse attached to the force and worked at the hospital in Apia after New Zealand forces occupied German Samoa.
After approximately 10 months in Samoa, Willis returned to New Zealand and took charge of a ward at Wellington Hospital caring for soldiers suffering from cerebrospinal meningitis. In July 1915 she left New Zealand again with members of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service aboard the hospital ship Maheno, bound for Egypt. She subsequently served at the New Zealand General Hospital near Cairo, where large numbers of sick and wounded soldiers from the Gallipoli campaign were treated.
In June 1916 Willis transferred to England with No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital at Brockenhurst before being posted to No. 1 New Zealand Stationary Hospital at Amiens in France. She worked close to the front line under extremely demanding conditions, including long periods in operating theatres and wards receiving large numbers of wounded men. She also served at Bruay-en-Artois during the battle of Vimy Ridge and at times acted as sister in charge of an advanced dressing station.
In 1917 No. 1 New Zealand Stationary Hospital moved to Hazebrouck. Willis continued nursing through shelling and air raids before the hospital was evacuated and later re-established at Wisques. Her service record confirms wartime service in the Egyptian and Western European theatres and records more than three years of overseas service.
For her wartime service, Willis was appointed an Associate of the Royal Red Cross and was twice Mentioned in Despatches. She was also later brought to the notice of the Secretary of State for War. Her Online Cenotaph record additionally records the Efficiency Decoration and, in 1944, appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
After returning to New Zealand, Willis served at Featherston Military Camp during the influenza epidemic, where large numbers of military personnel required treatment. In January 1919 she became assistant to Hester Maclean, Matron-in-Chief of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service, and assisted with the demobilisation of the service.
In 1920 Willis moved into public health administration as assistant inspector of public hospitals, a position she held for about 20 years. She remained active in the New Zealand Army Nursing Service reserve, attending camps and instructing members of the New Zealand Medical Corps. She was recalled from the reserve in 1929 and appointed a matron, became principal nurse in 1932 and Matron-in-Chief in 1933.
At the outbreak of World War II, Willis directed the organisation of New Zealand’s military nursing services. She helped coordinate the deployment of hundreds of trained nurses to military hospitals, troopships, camps and overseas postings. In recognition of her long service to military nursing, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1944.
Willis retired from nursing and military service in February 1946. She spent her retirement living with her sister at Raumati Beach and travelling overseas. She never married and died at Raumati on 7 March 1968. She was buried at Karori Cemetery, Wellington.
The Willis family also had a strong military association through Ida’s brother, Sergeant Cecil Nicholson Willis, who died of wounds received on active service in 1917. In 2026, a historic pulpit from St John’s Church, Johnsonville, associated with the Willis family, was preserved by the New Zealand Remembrance Army and donated to the Trentham Military Chapel. AWMM
About death
- Death
- 7 Mar 1968 AWMM
- 7 Mar 1968 WWII NZANS Roll
- 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
- Karori Cemetery AWMM Plot 19 DIV C2 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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Related Serviceperson
Sources
- External links
- Military personnel file
https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R22020211
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 - Wikidata Entity
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q14954731
Further Reference - Jan Rodgers. 'Willis, Lizzie Ida Grace', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1998. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4w21/willis-lizzie-ida-grace (accessed 10 August 2026).
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4w21/willis-lizzie-ida-grace
Further Reference - Elborough, Sophie. New Zealand Nurses in Samoa. Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira. First published: 5 April 2024.
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/features/new-zealand-nurses-in-samoa
Further Reference - Holms,JGM (2023) Back to the Front; The Experiences of Elsie Grey: A New Zealand World War I NursePublic - Kiwi Scribe - 3 October 2024 - The photos of Matron Ida Willis emanate from Elsie Grey's private photo albums whilst she was serving overseas in Wisques, France. They are included in the book collated and edited by her grandnephew John Holms.
- Jan Rodgers. 'Willis, Lizzie Ida Grace'Public - Joan - Researcher - 18 April 2015 - Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 8-Apr-2014
URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/4w21/willis-lizzie-ida-grace
- Military personnel file
- References
- McDonald, W. (2013). Honours and Awards to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Great War, 1914-1918. (3rd ed.). Hamilton, N.Z.: Richard Stowers.
- New Zealand Military Nursing - A History of the R.N.Z.N.C. Boer War to Present Day
- New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force. (1914-1919). Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Volume I. Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
Vol1: 786 - 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.
- 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. 1: Includes portrait - 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.
- Colin M. Gordon Album (1915-1918). Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira PH-ALB-376.
- 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.
- Holms, JGM (2023) Back to the Front: The Experiences of Elsie Grey: A New Zealand World War I Nurse.Public - Kiwi Scribe - 3 October 2024 - Elsie Grey's private papers and photo albums.
The development of the Online Cenotaph is an ongoing process; updates, new images and records are added weekly. In some cases, records have yet to be confirmed by Museum staff, and there could be mistakes or omissions in the information provided.
Online Cenotaph Data by Auckland War Memorial Museum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.