Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

03/04/1917

Date of Discharge

19/02/1920

Place of Enlistment

Sydney NSW

Gender

Female

Other Name(s)

Gladys Elizabeth Clare Firkin

Date of Birth

19/02/1891

Place of Birth

Ginninderra ACT

Address (at enlistment)

Orange NSW (previously Ginninderra ACT)

Occupation

Nurse

Next of Kin

David W. Boon (father), Orange NSW

Final Rank

Sister

Final Unit

3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital

Belconnen Area Enlistments WW1, Ellen Clark Park, Smith Street, Weetangera

Gladys Boon was born in the Belconnen area on 19 February 1891 where her grandfathers, David Boon and Thomas Southwell had both farmed. Her father David William Boon was also a farmer but he joined the New South Wales police force when she was young and was posted to a number of country towns including Goulburn and Orange. Gladys trained as a nurse at Orange Base Hospital, graduating after four years in February 1915.

Early in 1917 advertisements called for trained nurses to serve overseas in hospitals. The response was overwhelming and so the British War Office asked the Australian government to send nurses to staff four British military hospitals in Salonika in Greece where the British were involved in fighting the German allied Bulgarians. Gladys Boon was one of the nurses sent to Salonika.

She enlisted in Sydney on 3 April 1917 and embarked on the RMS Mooltan two months later, eventually arriving in Salonika on 25 July 1917. Over the next thirteen months she nursed in several British hospitals in the Salonika area but mostly at the 50th British General Hospital in Kalamaria. Casualties were few when compared to the numbers treated on the Western Front but disease was endemic with malaria, dysentery and black water fever common. Mosquitoes were the main cause of the spread of disease and they were such a large problem that nurses were forced to work in heavy netting and clothing covering their entire body.

Although she avoided malaria the conditions were so wearing that in August 1918 Gladys was hospitalised with debility and shortly afterwards with influenza. In January 1919 she was sent to England to nurse at the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford. Before returning home she was given three months paid leave to complete a course in Domestic Economy at the Battersea Polytechnic where she gained a certificate in "cookery, laundrywork & housecraft".

Gladys Boon arrived back in Australia in September 1919 and was discharged on 19 February 1920. She nursed at Bathurst District Hospital and at Wallsend near Newcastle. It was there that she met Arthur Firkin whom she married on 29 July 1925 in Orange. Gladys Firkin (nee Boon) died in Manly in Sydney on 25 November 1948.

Description - height 5 feet 3 inches, weight 126 pounds, medium complexion, brown eyes, brown hair, Methodist.

Biographical Register of Canberra and Queanbeyan: from the district to the Australian Capital Territory 1820-1930. Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra Inc., 2001 (p.20)
The Southwell Family, pioneers of the Canberra district, Lyall Gillespie, 1988
AWM Collections Record : A01240
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Lyall Gillespie Collection, Hall School Museum