Informal group portrait of the wedding party at the marriage of VX5519 Captain (Capt) James ...

Informal group portrait of the wedding party at the marriage of VX5519 Captain (Capt) James McCaig Menzies, to VX65911 Lieutenant (Lt) Sister Kathleen Gardner, outside St Columbas Church, Hawthorn, Vic. They are attended by groomsman 337660 Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Walter Weate (left) and bridesmaid Verena Galloway (sister of the bride, far right). The couple first met when Capt Menzies, of the 2/7th Battalion, was evacuated from Papua New Guinea to the 115th Australian General Hospital at Heidelberg, Vic, for the treatment of a wound to his knee in February 1943. Sister Gardner was the nurse in charge of his ward, and the two soon became friends. Capt Menzies later wrote: 'Her first job with me was to cut a particularly ripe plaster off my knee. I was impressed by the way she went about it and we very soon became friendly.' They announced their engagement on 14 May 1943, the date of Capt Menzies birthday and also the day the Centaur, a hospital ship, was sunk off the Queensland coast by a Japanese submarine, killing many of Sister Gardner's close friends. The couple were married on 26 June 1943, and Sister Menzies was discharged from service several months later. Capt Menzies continued to work for the Army, first at Security Services and later with the Operational Research Section at Albert Park Barracks, until his discharge on 29 May 1944.