But we should also remember Sister Elizabeth McRae—one of the army nurses helping to patch them up.

She saw more danger in World War I than some of our male veterans and, as a surgical nurse on the Western Front, was up to her elbows in blood as bombs and gas shells fell around her.

Elizabeth - originally from Young and later settling in the Campbelltown area - has been the subject of a long campaign of recognition by the Campbelltown Advertiser. 

Some of her relatives still live in Young.

Campbelltown Council has already named a major street in Minto in her honour, and is also arranging for a special plaque to be erected at a new park in the Minto redevelopment.

And, thanks to the help of Sister McRae’s distant relatives, Young man John McRae and Mary Garnsey, we can now build a detailed picture of our war hero.

Lizzie, as she was known in the family, was the grand-daughter of migrants from the Scottish Highlands who arrived in Australia in 1837, originally working in the Camden area.

Her father was born at Cobbitty in 1840.

The family drifted southwest to Lambing Flat and Lizzie’s parents, John and Margaret, took up a farm at Wombat, near Young. Lizzie was born there in 1878, the second eldest of 11 children.

‘‘The older girls helped their father with the sheep and cattle work and even sowed the crops using horse drawn ploughs and drills,’’ her relatives recalled.

‘‘Nearly all the girls followed the nursing profession.

‘‘Each of the older girls finished her training before the next one followed. This was because it was quite costly to train and there wasn’t any government funding, the families bore the costs of their education.’’

Jean, the eldest, trained at Sydney Hospital, married a parson and they went as missionaries to India.

Lizzie, in her stiff collar and billowing skirt, completed her training at Orange District Hospital between 1903 and 1907, specialising in surgery.

She went on to nurse at hospitals in Sydney and Kurri Kurri.

It was then that she moved to the Campbelltown area. 

‘‘Her father kept a connection with the Macarthur area and chose to retire to Minto sometime after 1910,’’ her relatives said. 

‘‘Their farm, Ben Lomond, was about 10 acres within walking distance of the railway station.’’

Lizzie moved there to help her father and she quickly became well known as a private nurse and a ‘‘great worker’’ in Campbelltown and Ingleburn.

On April 25, 1915 the Anzacs— including young men she knew well —stormed the beach at Gallipoli.

Lizzie enlisted on April 26.

Army records describe her as 37 years old, with a ‘‘fresh’’ complexion, blue/grey eyes with dark brown hair.

She set sail on the RMS Mooltan on May 15 and was based at the 1st Australian General Hospital, Cairo, patching up wounded men from Gallipoli, working in an atmosphere of antiseptic, gas, blood and flesh.

She was then based on the hospital ship Nestor, taking wounded boys back to Australia in early 1916.

She was welcomed home with a huge party at Minto School of Arts, presented with gifts and wished ‘‘God-speed and a safe return’’.

Arriving back in Egypt, she was hospitalised in May, 1916 with measles, but then was sent to England as the horrific Somme offensive erupted on the Western Front in France.

There, in various hospitals, she spent the next year dealing with the human carnage of that fighting.

In April 1917, Lizzie was transferred to France—based at the 1st Australian General Hospital at Rouen.

She wasted no time in making her presence felt. 

In July 1917 her father, on his farm in Minto, was informed that his daughter had been awarded by Lt General Birdwood for her ‘‘conspicuous services’’.

Then, the war came a lot closer.

On New Year’s Day, 1918, Lizzie reported for duty at the 1st Australian casualty clearing station, immediately behind the front line.

Those three months felt like a lifetime as she assisted doctors in hellish conditions, removing limbs or plunging her hands into bleeding bodies, or comforting dying Diggers.

According to a newspaper report, she was mentioned three times in dispatches and was decorated with the Royal Red Cross for exceptional bravery and devotion to duty.

She fell victim to a gas attack, but remained on duty until she returned to Rouen, where she remained until the war ended in November 1918.

Lizzie returned to England, but in March 1919 was hospitalised as a victim of the deadly influenza pandemic which killed at least 50 million people at the end of the war.

She survived, and set sail for home on board the HMAT Takada in July.

At Colombo, she was granted two months’ leave in India to stay with her sister, Jean, and finally arrived back in Australia on the SS Ormonde on December 29, 1919, and was officially discharged in February 1920.

She was welcomed back with a huge community party at Campbelltown Town Hall, where she was presented with a gold brooch.

Unfortunately, the hot-in-summer Minto climate made life hard for her.

‘‘After the war, Lizzie suffered lung problems because of the gassing,’’ her relatives recalled.

‘‘She tried living at Minto, then the Blue Mountains and finally found the Central Coast at Terrigal, with its sea breezes, to be the best climate.’’

She and a sister, Mary, had adjoining cottages on a block of land with great views out to the Pacific.

Unfortunately, with the passing of years, Lizzie was gradually forgotten by the town she had called home during the war. 

She died on January 25, 1967, and is buried at Point Clare Cemetery near Gosford.

The Advertiser and The Young Witness are honoured to be able to keep her local memory alive.