The ministering angel

Depicts a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD). The primary role of a VAD member was that of nursing orderly in hospitals, carrying out menial but essential tasks- scrubbing floors, sweeping, dusting and cleaning bathrooms and other areas, dealing with bedpans, and washing patients. They were not employed in military hospitals except as ward and pantry maids; rather, they worked in Red Cross convalescent and rest homes, canteens, and on troops trains. At the start of the First World War Australian VADs were restricted from travelling overseas by the Defence council. As a result, many chose to travel on their own initiative and joined British detachments, often in Australian hospitals. It is reported that the 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital included in their nursing staff some 120 VADs, chiefly Australians in the British service, employed through the Australian Red Cross Society. This policy was changed in 1916 after a request from Great Britain, and the first detachment of 30 official Australian VADs to serve overseas left Australia in September 1916. The work is an exquisite portrait which shows the romantic quality and freshness of colour in Minns' watercolours.