Margaret Elston Webster (nee Nicholson) as a member of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC), Japan and South Korea, 1951-1953, interviewed by Jan Bassett

Enlisted July 1951 in Melbourne, discharged July 1953; commenced civilian nursing in August 1945 at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney; after completion of training joined Heidleberg Repatriation Hospital, Melbourne; recruited into the army in 1951 for two year service in Japan and Korea; posted to British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) Hospital in Kure, Japan; describes uniform, working and living conditions; describes patients and injuries treated; working hours; climate; professional relationship between nurses and other medical staff; relations between Australian, British and Canadian nurses; posted to small Australian hospital in Tokyo for six months then posted to Seoul in South Korea in 1953; describes working and living conditions in hospital; leave and recreation; trip to Hiroshima in 1951; returned to Australia on troop ship with 1st Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR); posted to Puckapunyal camp hospital for two months; after completion of two year sign up took discharge and travelled to Britain where she married a British Army doctor whom she had met in Japan; advances in medical treatments as a result of war; comparison between civilian and military nursing; tells the story of being chosen as the model for Napier Waller's servicewomen mosaic in the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial; relates her impressions of Napier Waller and the first time she saw the mosaic during a visit to Australia from Britain in 1968. END OF INTERVIEW
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