In March 1915 three of the seven nurses who had gone to Samoa with the Advance Party in August 1914 returned to New Zealand alongside the first large group of mainly fit men. Head Sister Bertha Nurse and Sisters Fanny Wilson and Vida Maclean (shown here on the wharf in Wellington on their return) were recalled to join the first NZANS nursing contingent, which left the country in April 1915.
The other members of the group also soon returned to New Zealand. Nurses Louise Brandon and Louise (Louie) McNie arrived at Auckland in May 1915, followed by Matron Eva Brooke and Sister Ida Willis in June. Brandon, Brooke and McNie served as nursing staff on the hospital ship Maheno on its maiden voyage from Wellington in July 1915, while Willis oversaw 70 nurses who were travelling as passengers on their way to the front.
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