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The history books tell us that about 550 New Zealand nurses went to World War One while other women stayed home, knitting, fundraising and looking after families and farms while the men were away.
But many women went too – as doctors and ambulance drivers, munitions workers and mathematicians, civil servants and servicewomen in British units, and in many other roles. They mainly paid their own fares and worked for very little. Some provided amenities for soldiers and others, and these have often been attributed to the military or men’s groups.
The book Make her Praises Heard Afar by Jane Tolerton (2017) introduces women whose contribution to the war effort has been overlooked, telling an astonishing story with extraordinary range and depth of research. The title’s use of a phrase from the national anthem invites New Zealand women to recognise that they were us – 100 years ago. New Zealand women who have read World War One books by men and about men are ready to appreciate that women were there too.
Object of this Project
The purpose of this project is to gather the profiles of New Zealand women, other than nurses (who have their own project), who contributed to the war effort.
See also
- 1918 lnfluenza Pandemic - New Zealand: Fatalities
- World War I (1914-1918): Gallipoli Campaign
- New Zealand Portal
- New Zealand War Memorials Index An index to war memorials within New Zealand to those who died during war.
- World War I (1914-1918): New Zealand Armed Forces
- World War I (1914-1918): New Zealand Nurses
- World War I (1914-1918): New Zealand Roll of Honour
- World War I (1914-1918): New Zealand Women
- World War I (1914-1918): Tauranga Roll of Honour (New Zealand)
- Sinking of the HT "Marquette" 23 October 1915 The Marquette was hit by a German torpedo and sank in the Aegean Sea, with great loss of life, including ten New Zealand nurses.