Bushire, Persia. c. 1918. Informal portrait of four hospital nursing staff of the Australian Army ...

Bushire, Persia. c. 1918. Informal portrait of four hospital nursing staff of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and four soldiers. The staff consisted of Sister Lily Stewart who was in charge and Sisters Emmeline Wellard RRC, Waterstrom, Purcell and Parnell, one of whom took this photograph. The hospital, on the Persian Gulf, was the only one near the Mesopotamia front staffed by Australian nurses. It had about thirty beds for officers and 100 for other ranks. Most of the troops in the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force nearby were doing outpost duty on the railway line which ran from Bushire about 100 miles into Persia. Sister Wellard (far left) is the only one positively identified.