Nursing Aids at War: The Australian Army Medical Women's Service in the Second World War explores the chronological history of the Australian Army Medical Women's Service (AAMWS) and challenges our understanding of servicewomen and gendered work in the Australian Army. Arranged in three parts, the book first introduces the nursing aid and how the Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) became intertwined with the nursing service in the First and Second World Wars. It then investigates disruptions, tensions and controversies faced by the VAD as they transitioned into the AAMWS; in particular, the training schemes for AAMWS to become professionally trained nurses in military hospitals. Lastly, the book explores and challenges representations and reflections of the VAD and AAMWS, including building a national identity separate to practising nurses, and acknowledging their history as largely being forgotten amongst discussion of Australia's wider military history.
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It explores the history of the Australian Army Medical Women's Service and our understanding of servicewomen in the Australian Army.
Introduction; Part I. Introducing the Nursing Aid:
1. A Charitable
Service: The Voluntary Aid Detachment and the Nursing Profession in
Australia, 191439;
2. Developing New Skills: Voluntary Aids in the Middle
East, 194143; Part II. Disruptions, Tensions and Controversies:
3. Becoming
AAMWS: Questions of Identity and Skill;
4. AAMWS in the Pacific: Work in the
Wards;
5. Becoming Nurses?: The AAMWS Nurse Training Scheme; Part III.
Representations and Reflections:
6. Constructing A Public Image: Cultural
Representations of VAs and AAMWS During the War;
7. Beyond the Ward: The
Other Duties of AAMWS;
8. Reflections: AAMWS Servicewomen Create Their Own
History; Conclusion.
Jason Smeaton is a social historian of women in the Australian armed forces. He received his Ph.D. in 2023 from the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian Catholic University, and is now a historian with the Australian Army History Unit and Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales Canberra. He continues to research the organisational history of women's inclusion in the Australian military and the experiences of servicewomen throughout history.
