Australian Military Units

Colonel Kathleen Annie Louise Best, OBE, RRC

Date of birth  1910-08-28  Summer Hill, NSW. 
Date and unit at enlistment (ORs)  1940-05-30  Volunteered for service in the Australian Army Nursing Service and was appointed as matron of 2/5th Australian General Hospital. 
Other  1940-10  Embarked for the Middle East. 
Other  1940-12  2/5th Australian General Hospital opened at Rehovot, Palestine. 
Other  1941-04  Best and her staff were moved to Greece and based at Ekali, 12 miles south of Athens, where the ANZAC Corps were coming under constant German attack. Many of the medical personnel were evacuated as the Germans advanced. Best and 39 nurse remained to care for the wounded. 
Other  1941-04-25  Best and the remaining nurses were ordered to evacuate, and were transported to Crete. For her courage and efficiency during the evacuations she was awarded the Royal Red Cross. Evacuated from Crete, Best and her staff then returned to Egypt where she had charge of a nurses staging camp at Suez. Enclosed by a high, barbed wire fence with only one gate, the camp was popularly known as 'Katie's Birdcage'. 
Other  1941-08  Best went with the 2/5th Australian General Hospital to Eritrea in Ethiopia. 
Date of honour or award  1941-12-30  Royal Red Cross (RRC). 
Date returned to Australia  1942-03   
Other  1942-06  Best's AIF appointment terminated. 
Other  1942-07  Best was made inaugural controller of full time Voluntary Aid Detachments, later to be called the Australian Army Medical Women's Service. 
Date promoted  1943-02  Appointed lieutenant colonel and she was posted as assistant adjutant general for women's services dealing with matters of policy. 
Date of discharge  1944-09-02  Transferred to the Reserve of Officers and joined the Ministry of Post War Reconstruction, where she retrained service women for civilian life. 
Other  1951  Recalled from the Reserve of Officers she was appointed first director of the Women's Australian Army Corps which gained the title Women's Royal Australian Army Corps later the same year. 
Date promoted  1952-09  Honorary colonel. 
Date of honour or award  1956-01-02  Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). 
Date of death  1957-11-15  Richmond, VIC.