S/Nrs. Nona Mildred Hildyard

Nona Mildred Hildyard was born in Lyttelton on 4th November, 1888, daughter of William and Betsy Ann Hildyard, who were originally from Tasmania, Australia. William was a boot maker. Nona attended West Lyttelton School and Gilby’s Commercial College in Christchurch. She attended classes in First Aid and Home nursing at the Lyttelton St. John Ambulance centre. She trained as a nurse at Christchurch Hospital, and then worked for Dr. Sandston. She was 5 foot 5 ½ “ tall, and had grey eyes and brown hair. When the call was made for nurses to serve overseas, she joined the New Zealand Army Nursing Service. Before she left Lyttelton, she was given a ‘very hearty farewell by a large number of her friends’, and “a number of citizens of the borough met Nurse Hildyard and presented her with a purse of sovereigns. In making the presentation, Mr. W. C. Cleary remarked that the Lyttelton district had to date contributed about 200 men for the fighting line, but Nurse Hildyard was the first lady to represent the port”. She left Wellington on the 11th July on the hospital ship SS Maheno, with 69 other New Zealand nurses. When the ship arrived at Port Said on 18th August, she was transferred to the No.1 Stationary Hospital. This was almost on the beach, and had about 500 beds. She went with the New Zealand No. 1 Stationary Hospital across to Salonika, leaving Alexandra on 19th October, on the Marquette. On the 23rd October, the ship was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine, and sank within ten minutes. A fellow nurse gave the following account of what happened to Nona:

“When torpedoed we donned lifebelts, and Nonie and I were in the same boat, but it heeled over shortly after reaching the water, and I got separated from her. She regained the boat with several others, and was very bright and cheerful, singing “Tipperary’, etc, and helping to keep the others’ courage up….But the poor child eventually died from exhaustion before we were picked up. We were in the water for about eight hours and it was very cold. We all miss her awfully—she was such a good pal, and we had been together all through.”

Nona was 28 years old when she died on the 23rd October, 1915. She was posthumously awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal. Source: Kete Christchurch

Sources

1. Military Personnel File 1
2. Military Personnel File 2
3. Cenotaph Record
4. Commonwealth War Graves Commission Record
5. New Zealand War Graves Record
6. Wikipedia contributors, 'Nona Hildyard', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
7. Portrait

HILDYARD, NORA MILDRED

• Rank: Staff Nurse
• Service No: 22/125
• Date of Death: 23/10/1915
• Age: 28
• Regiment/Service: New Zealand Army Nursing Service
• Panel Reference:
• Memorial: MIKRA MEMORIAL
• Additional Information: Daughter of Betsy Ann Hildyard, of Lyttelton, Christchurch, New Zealand, and the late William Hildyard

HILDYARD, NONA MILDRED, Nurse, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, daughter of William Hildyard, of Lyttleton, New Zealand, by his wife, Betsy Ann, daughter of John (and Harriet) Libballie; born Lyttleton aforesaid, 4 Nov. 1890; educated Lyttleton Public Schools; entered the Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand, where she soon attracted the attention of her superiors, and on the outbreak of war was one of the nurses specially selected by the Government to go to the Front with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. She left for Egypt 11 July, 1915, and was for some time engaged in the Base Hospital, Port Said. When the New Zealand troops were being transferred to Salonika, she sailed for that port with the other nurses of the hospital, and was lost on the troopship Marquette, when that ship was torpedoed in the Gulf of Salonika 23 Oct. 1915. Doctors who were eye-witnesses of the disaster affirm that she displayed wonderful courage and fortitude, and sang "Tipperary" and "Are we downhearted? No!" to the last to keep up the spirits of her comrades. Source: Extract from The Roll of Honour, A Biographical record of all members of His Majesty's Naval and Military Forces who have fallen in the War, by the Marquis de Ruvigny, Volume I., The Standard Art Book Company, Ltd, December, 1916.