Next of Kin Plaque : Sister Edith Blake, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service

Bronze next of kin plaque showing Britannia holding a laurel wreath, the British lion, dolphins, a spray of oak leaves and the words 'SHE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR' around the edge. Beneath the main figures the British lion defeats the German eagle. A raised rectangle above the lion's head bears the name 'EDITH BLAKE'.

Edith Blake was born in Redfern in 1885 and trained as a nurse at The Coast Hospital (now Prince Henry Hospital) at Little Bay. Joining the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) in response to a British request for 200 Australian nurses, Blake embarked for overseas service aboard the RMS Malwa in April 1915.

Disembarking in Egypt, Blake joined 1 Australian General Hospital, Cairo on 2 May nursing men wounded on Gallipoli. She nursed in Egypt for 18 months later transferring to 17 British General Hosptial, Alexandria. Towards the end of 1916 Blake transferred to the hospital ship Essequibo where she remained for six months. In May 1917 she was assigned to a newly establish hospital in Belmont, Surrey caring for German prisoners of war.

Applying for a transfer later that year Blake was assigned to the hospital ship Glenart Castle which she joined in Liverpool on November 12.

On 26 February 1918 Sister Blake was killed when the Glenart Castle, was sunk by the German U-boat UC-56 off Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel. The ship had been travelling from Newport, South Wales to Brest, France to pick up men wounded on the Western Front. Her name is recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton. Her family placed a small memorial notice in the Sydney Morning Herald on the first anniversary of her death:

For her there were no flowers
To adorn the unmarked surface of the water;
The ocean alone decks her grave with gifts of pearls and shell,
And wreathes her brow with seaweeds rare.