Captain Dorothy Jean Goode
RSL (Port Pirie Sub Branch) Inc.Dorothy Jean Goode was born in Port Pirie on the 22nd September 1911 to Samuel Mortimer James and Mary Jean Bishe Goode (nee Lindsay).
Dorothy was a single, trained nurse living at Wandearah West, South Australia, when she was motivated by a sense of duty and a desire to “do her bit”. She enlisted on the 29th May 1940 and was posted to Woodside with the rank of Sister to the Australian Army Nursing Service.
Approximately 5,000 Australian nurses served in a variety of locations during World War 2, including the Mediterranean, Britain, Asia, the Pacific, Australia, and the Middle East and India where Dorothy served. 78 nurses died, some through accident or illness but most as a result of enemy action or as prisoners of war.
Dorothy was granted pre-embarkation leave before sailing to the Middle East on December 1940 aboard the SS Mauretania. The ship was a 35,700 tonne ocean liner that had had some armaments attached, painted battle grey and converted to a troopship.
On arrival in Egypt with the 2/4th Australian General Hospital (AGH), nurses were dispatched to assist the 2/2nd AGH which was busy treating the wounded from the Western Desert campaign against the Italians.
In April 1941, Dorothy re-joined the 2/4th AGH before being transferred to the 2/1st AGH at Gaza Ridge, Palestine.
By the 23rd March 1941, the hospital had 50 patients, by the 5th May 1941, 229 patients, and on 8th June 1941, 484 patients. Soon after the 2/2nd AGH (1,200 beds) joined them at Gaza Ridge, and with the arrival of the 7th Division, the 2/5th AGH, another 1,200 bed unit helped lighten the load.
The following year on 28th March 1942, Dorothy left the Middle East for Colombo, Ceylon. She worked as a nurse there for 5 months before returning to Australia and was then posted to the 115th AGH in Heidelberg in north eastern Melbourne.
Dorothy was promoted to Captain in 1943 having served in Egypt, Palestine, Libya, Ceylon and Australia. By the end of the war, nursing sisters had been commissioned as officers, although many were loath to give up their traditional titles of “Sister” and “Matron”.
On the 24th February 1944, Captain Dorothy Goode was posted to 121 AGH in Katherine, Northern Territory and discharged from the Australian Army Nursing Service on September 1946.
Dorothy died on the 29th August 1979 and is interred in the Centennial Park Cemetery, Pasadena, Mitcham, South Australia.
- National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=6655…
