HAWKESBURY historian John Miller will honour one of Hawkesbury’s almost-forgotten heroines next Anzac Day.
Julia Bligh Johnston was an Australian Army nurse during the Boer War in South Africa and during the First World World.
‘‘I’ll be wearing replicas of her medals, on her behalf, on Anzac Day,’’ Mr Miller said.
‘‘I’ve received permission to do that; I’m glad I can recognise her.’’
In 2006 Mr Miller self-published his history of Sister Johnson: Sister Julia Bligh Johnston RRC and her Australian Army Nursing Sisters, A Hawkesbury Angel of Mercy.
‘‘It took me three years of research, but I’m happy she at last got the recognition she deserved,’’ Mr Miller said.
When he discovered Sister Johnston’s history, he successfully campaigned to have her name included on the Windsor War Memorial to Hawkesbury veterans of the Boer War in South Africa, 1899-1902.
Julia Bligh Johnston was born in Windsor in 1861, a granddaughter of an early Hawkesbury settler, Andrew Johnston who supported NSW Governor William Bligh during the Rum Rebellion of 1808.
He demonstrated his loyalty to the governor by bestowing the middle name Bligh on his son, James, who was Julia’s father.
Descendants of Andrew Johnston carry the middle name, Bligh, to this day.
Sister Johnston trained as a nurse and served with Australian soldiers in South Africa and later during the Great War.
After returning to Australia she worked with the Ambulance Service before retiring in 1926.
She never married and died in 1940.
Mr Miller said researching her life was difficult because few of her letters survived.
‘‘But I got to speak to Val Tuckerman, a cousin of Julia’s, who gave me a good historic background,’’ Mr Miller said.
‘‘There had been no recognition of our nurses. They helped our wounded soldiers back to health; they would have died without their help.’’
He will speak about Sister Johnston and Australian war nurses in a speech to the Hawkesbury Probus Club on October 20.
