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Anzac Special: Sister Anne's fight to save our men

Graeme and Jan share Anne's story in this week's New Idea, on sale now! Photo: New Idea

She appears serene, standing among a gathering of soldiers outside a wind-blasted field hospital tent on the Greek island of Lemnos.

Her gentle smile in that fading, sepia-toned photograph hides her exhaustion, the agony of her crippling frostbite, the pounding in her heart as she hears the gunfire of Gallipoli across the waters – and the sad realisation that soon they will be bringing more badly wounded soldiers to the ill-equipped hospital.

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'I can't begin to imagine how many lives she saved,’ says a proud and emotional Graeme Mitchell, as he stares at the photograph of his grandmother, the heroic South Australian nurse Anne Donnell.

'It would be countless lives. She devoted herself to a lifetime of caring for the sick and downcast, and to think that after all those years of service, she died in poverty in a friend's granny flat in Perth in 1956.'

Anzac Special: Sister Anne Donnell
Anzac Special: Sister Anne Donnell

Jan (L) and Graeme. Photo: New Idea

Graeme, along with his partner Jan Leader and brother Rhett, combined forces to bring the legacy of Anne, including her photos and diaries, to public awareness.

Anne's diaries reveal a courageous and compassionate woman battling ferocious cold in a tent hospital near Gallipoli. One poignant entry reveals the depth of her care for the wounded soldiers and how each death left her heartbroken.

'I told him he would be mine until his mother came,' Anne wrote of one young man she tended. 'He gave me the loveliest smile. But next morning, his bed was empty – just another one of many there that had made the supreme sacrifice.'


Speaking to New Idea, Graeme explains, 'We made the choice to immerse ourselves in getting the story of Anne out there.

'It is such an important part of our history, of women's history.

'As far as we're concerned, she deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with the very best Australia has to offer. We know of Simpson and his donkey, and "Weary" Dunlop – and now we have Anne, an extraordinary woman who
has earned her place beside them.'


To read the rest of Anne Donnell's inspiring story, pick up this week's New Idea magazine, on sale now!

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