Group portrait of Staff Nurse Elizabeth Kenny, No 1 Sea Transport Section, with unidentified ...

Group portrait of Staff Nurse Elizabeth Kenny, No 1 Sea Transport Section, with unidentified officers aboard HMAT Themistocles (A32). Better known as Sister Kenny, she became famous in later life as a pioneer of physical therapy treatments for the rehabilitation of patients suffering from muscular paralysis. A bush nurse from rural Australia, Kenny enlisted in the AANS on 30 May 1915. She served aboard hospital ships that transported wounded from England to Australia, and was promoted to the rank of Sister in 1917, a title she used for the rest of her life. Returning to civilian nursing after the war, Sister Kenny established four clinics to treat polio and cerebal palsy patients using her own methods of muscle re-education. In 1941 she travelled to the United States, where she held demonstrations of her techniques during the height of the polio epidemic and eventually gained widespread recognition. The Elizabeth Kenny Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was set up in 1943 to train nurses and physiotherapists in her methods. Returning to Australia, Sister Kenny was diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease in 1952, and died in Toowoomba the same year. Her book 'My Battle and Victory' was published posthumously in 1955.