Nurses place wreaths on the graves of three nurses and a medical corps corporal killed in an accident near Cairo in 1943.
Nurses place wreaths on the graves of three nurses and a medical corps corporal killed in an accident near Cairo in 1943.
The Napier City Council in 2017 renamed the War Memorial Centre to Napier Conference Centre and removed the eternal flame and Roll of Honour ‒ a decision which upset many in Napier.
When it did this, it took away the name of Patricia Anne Morrissey, a 27-year-old nurse from PortAhuriri. She was the only woman to appear on the Roll of Honour.
Patricia was selected in 1941 from Military Area 7 (Napier), along with 22 other Napier nurses to be included in a group of 200 voluntary aid and clerical workers to serve overseas with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force overseas hospital division.
She was posted to Cairo, Egypt, and made a member of the New Zealand Women's Army Auxiliary.
Patricia had served in Egypt since early 1942, when on October 21, 1943, a truck in which she was travelling in at night collided with a three-ton lorry.
Along with two other nurses and a medical corps corporal, Private Patricia Morrissey was killed in one of the most tragic road accidents in the history of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF).
Over 300 men and women of the NZEF, which were mainly hospital staff, together with patients attended the combined military funeral.
Patricia's funeral was held in the morning of October 23, 1943 as a requiem mass at the hospital. A combined funeral was held for the other three victims at a Church of England service in the afternoon, before the funeral cortege procession moved off.
The procession was headed by ambulances and arrived at the Ad El Ballah military cemetery, where a guard of honour awaited.
Michael Fowler
All the caskets where draped with Union Jacks and crowned with wreaths and carried by men of the unit.
A Gordon Highlander piper from the 51st Division played the Flowers of the Forest Lament leading the guard of honour to the cemetery grounds where the caskets were laid by the side of their separate graves.
Church of England and Roman Catholic services were held graveside and then three volleys were fired over the graves.
The Gordon Highlander bugler sounded the Last Post, and then all mourners pasted by the graves giving their last tribute.
Many wreaths were placed (as shown in the photo) from all sections of the hospital staff and outside units and individuals.
Lady Freyberg, wife of Lieutenant Bernard Freyberg, commander of the NZEF in the North African campaign, attended the funeral.
In World War II, nine New Zealand nurses lost their lives – four in motor vehicle accidents, three in airplane crashes and two by illness.
* In late 2019 Napier City Council changed the name of the Marine Parade conference centre to Napier War Memorial Centre and have plans to re-establish the eternal flame and plaques, one of which will be Patricia Patricia Morrissey.
Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher, commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history and now accepting commissions for 2022.
