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DUBBO-born woman Ada Mildred Thompson wanted to help Australian troops when she enlisted as a staff nurse towards the end of the First World War.
Aged 32 and single, Ada left Sydney on board the SS Wyreema on October 14, 1918.
She disembarked at Freemantle for service at the Woodman's Point Quarantine Station. Ada contacted Spanish flu and died at 5pm on January 1, 1919.
Sister Rose O'Kane, a volunteer from the SS Wyreema, civilian nurse Hilda Williams and staff sister Doris Ridgeway also died from pneumonic influenza along with 27 Australian and New Zealand soldiers.
The passing of the nurses was deeply mourned, particularly as they had stepped forward to care for afflicted soldiers.
Listed in official records as a British subject, Ada's next of kin was her mother Mrs W. M. Thompson of Wytonia, Pallamallawa, a small rural community east of Moree.
Ada's last will and testament left all her property and effects to her sister Ethel Thompson.
More than 3,000 Australian civilian nurses volunteered for active service during the First World War.
The initial draft of sisters in the Australian Army Nurses Services (AANS) headed overseas in September 1914.
Throughout the war the nurses served wherever Australian troops were sent. They were spread over a vast area extending from the coast of the Dardanelles in Turkey to Greece, Egypt and Palestine, Francie, Belgium, Germany, South Persia and Italy.
Australian nurses worked in hospitals, on hospital ships and trains, and in casualty clearing stations close to the front line.
Many of the nurses were decorated, with eight receiving the Military Medal for bravery.
Twenty-five died during their service.
