Margaret WOODS

Margaret was among the first forty NSW military nurses selected to serve overseas during WW1. Assigned to Australian General Hospital 2 Nursing Service, she departed Sydney on the ship Kyarra in November 1914. This was the first hospital ship to leave Australia during World War 1.

After service in Egypt she went to England and was one of a medical team which brought wounded men home in 1916. Margaret returned to Egypt and was promoted to Head Sister in March 1917. Shortly after her return to Australia in 1919 she was awarded the Royal Red Cross 2nd Class Medal for ‘Conspicuous services with British Forces in Egypt’.

Margaret, the daughter of William and Catherine Woods of Moree, was born at Inverell in 1880. She trained at Burilda Private Hospital in Sydney. After the War she married Colonel William Foster in Sydney. Sadly she died in December 1920.