The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Staff Nurse Irene McPhail, Australian Army Nursing Service, First World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Chris Widenbar, the story for this day was on, Staff Nurse Irene McPhail, Australian Army Nursing Service, First World War.

Staff Nurse Irene McPhail, Australian Army Nursing Service
Date of Death: 4 August 1920
Story delivered 27 September 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Staff Nurse Irene McPhail.

Born in Echuca in Victoria, Irene was one of three children of Alice and James McPhail, a butcher and member of the Freemason society. She had one sister and one brother.

Irene trained as a nurse at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. She enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service in November 1917, at the age of 24.

More than 3,000 Australian civilian nurses volunteered for active service during the First World War. They were posted to Britain, France, Belgium, the Mediterranean, India and the Middle East. They worked in hospitals, on hospital ships and trains, or in casualty clearing stations closer to the front line.

McPhail was assigned to the King George War Hospital in Poona, India. She arrived in December 1917 and after a period of quarantine began working in January 1918.

Within a few months the rigours of the work and the climate in India began to take their toll on McPhail, and she became ill with tuberculosis. In May 1918 she was given six months’ leave to Australia, travelling via Suez on a hospital ship. In Egypt she was examined by a medical board, which determined that she should be permanently discharged from service, so she returned home.

After arriving in Australia in September 1918, McPhail was admitted to hospital in Melbourne. Her condition did not improve, and after more than two years battling the illness, she died on 4 August 1920. She was 27 years old.

Staff Nurse Irene McPhail is buried in the Brighton General Cemetery in Melbourne. Her name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War. She can be seen in a photograph displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Staff Nurse Irene McPhail, who gave her life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Emma Campbell
Researcher, Military History Section