Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

(   Colonel Nell Espie AM, RRC, FRCNA lives in Oatlands, a country town in the Southern Midlands municipality of my electorate of Lyons. Nell was born and grew up at Oatlands but travelled far to become one of Australia's most highly decorated nurses, before she returned home to live after her retirement.  She trained as a nurse during the 1940s and followed her ambition to be an army nurse by enlisting when the Korean War broke out. She was 26.

Nell was commissioned as a lieutenant with the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps and posted as ward sister and charge sister in Japan, Korea, Duntroon, Malaya, Queensland and Victoria. However, she describes her service at Vung Tau, in Southern Vietnam, during the Vietnam War, as the most rewarding experience of a distinguished career. She was matron of the field hospital, with only a handful of nursing officers, where swift helicopter evacuation meant injured soldiers would often arrive only 10 minutes after battle, still carrying their loaded weapons and grenades.

After her retirement, she served as President of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps Association and was later honoured as a life member. A driving force behind the Florence Nightingale Trust, she worked for many years to help veterans, war widows and their children. Her many awards include the Australian Red Cross (1978), Member of the Order of Australia (1992) and the Centenary Medal (2001).

She recently celebrated her 90th birthday at the Oatlands multipurpose centre, surrounded by family and friends.  Happy Birthday Colonel Nell Espie.

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