Eva May Behrens
Stephen LearmonthEva May Behrens was born in 1883 in Mansfield, Victoria, to Dittmer and Jane (née Jennings) Behrens. She was the youngest of ten children, four of whom would pass away before Eva’s 30th birthday.
The Behrens family moved to the Upper Murray in the late 1890’s. Two of her brothers, John and George, tried their hands at gold mining. They also played football cricket for various clubs, including the Miners team in the Upper Murray Football Association. Eva became involved in the musical side of Corryong, often playing the piano at concerts and recitals.
Eva decided upon a career in nursing and trained at Albury Hospital. She passed her Australian Trained Nurses Association examination with merit in late December 1914.
She enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service as a Staff Nurse on August 25 1916. She embarked on the transport RMS Kaiser-i-Hind on the 9th of December of that year, disembarking at Suez on January 10 1917. She was immediately assigned to nursing duties at the British 27th Army General Hospital in Abbassia, Egypt. It was while she was on duty here that she was promoted to Nursing Sister. Two months later, she was reassigned to the 14th Australian General Hospital, where she would remain until late February 1919.
After the war, Eva was transferred to England, where she reported to HQ AIF, London. While in England, she took the opportunity to pursue further education, the cost of which was covered by the Australian Government. Eva completed a three-month course in domestic science at the South Western Polytech Institute in Chelsea, England. She returned to Australia on September 19 1919, on HMT Demosthenes, resigning from the AANS on October 27 1919.
In June 1923, she took passage from Sydney on the SS Ventura, bound for Honolulu, Hawaii. The passenger manifest states that the length of her stay is “indefinite”. She remained in Hawaii for almost twelve months before embarking on the SS Ginyo Maru and travelling to Argentina. She returned to Australia and was registered as a nurse by the Australian Nurses Registration Board of NSW. By 1930, she had returned to Australia and was working as a school nurse at Milton Grammar School. Three years later, she occupied the position of Matron at The Armidale School in Armidale, NSW. In 1935, she joined the staff at Randwick and superintended the Occupational Therapy Department.
The following article appeared in the December 7 1940, edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
“Women also Serve.
THREE LAST-WAR SISTERS still on military duty, watching old AIF. men making basket ware. L. to R.: Matron J. M. Hart, Sub matron E. J. Garvin. and Sister E. M. Behrens.
Sisters of last war still nursing soldiers.
No other women in Australia could be more envious of the nurses who are going overseas with the Australian forces than thirty-two busy, cheerful women at Randwick Military Hospital.
All of them, including the matron and sub-matron, were war nurses during the last war, and many of them have been tending the illnesses and injuries of soldiers ever since.
Many of them served in advanced hospitals near the battle front and know at first hand the horrors and heart-breaks of war, but all of them say, "We'd love to be going again."
All of them are extremely reticent about their experiences. "It was all part of our job," they say, "we don't want to talk about it."
Sister E. M. Behrens superintends the occupational therapy department. Trained at Albury Hospital she became a war sister in 1916, serving in Egypt and England. She has worked and studied in America for some time and joined the staff at Randwick in 1935.
As well as members of the old A.I.F., these nurses are also looking after members of the new AIF., the Air Force, and the Navy.
"They're much the same as their fathers and uncles," said Matron Hart. "They're all very good kids, and on the whole are very well behaved patients.
"This is a very happy place. So many of ourselves and our patients have been here for a long time, and we are like a friendly family. Our old patients are so cheerful that they are a lesson to us in patience and good spirits."
Eva passed away at the North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, on January 24 1949. Her ashes were interred at Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens in North Ryde, Sydney.
