Ellen Julia Gould: A civilian nurse and founder of the military nursing tradition in Australia (1860-1941)

Important policy initiatives relating to the working conditions of female nurses in Australia were progressed, in part, by the involvement of civilian nurses in military campaigns. The importance of a formalized nurse training program for secular nurses was recognized by Florence Nightingale following her experiences in the Crimean War; secular nursing was created within a military framework. Therefore 'the female Army Nursing Service as found in the ... Australian Armies is to be regarded as an offshoot from the civil profession ... rather than as an original development of the military medical system'. Civilian trained nurse leaders like Ellen Julia (Nellie) Gould were instrumental in the education and training of civilian nurses and, during the interregnum of the Boer War and First World War (1902-1914), the promotion of a military tradition amongst civilian nurses.