Investitures

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XIV, Issue 2, 1 April 1921, Page 89

Investitures

On Tuesday morning, March 22nd, at Government House, Wellington, Sister Blanche Huddlestone, R.R.C., received her first-class Royal Red Cross from the hands of His Excellency Lord Jellicoe. Sister Huddlestone had received the second-class honour while on service m France, and since her return had been awarded the Medaille de la Reine Elizabeth of Belgium. Sister was one of the New Zealand nurses who were trained as anaesthetists, and who did such igood service m that capacity during the war. She has been on the staff of the Huia Hospital, Taihape, for some time lately.

Miss Eva Brook, R.R.C., who is now awaiting the opening of the Rannerdale Home for chronic cases (returned soldiers), m Christchurch, of which she is to be the matron, was called to an investiture held at the Provincial Hall by His Excellency Lord Jellicoe, and presented with her bar to the Royal Red Cross. The Matron-in-Chief being m Christchurch, was able to bo present at the ceremony.

News has been received of the award of the Florence Nightingale Medal to Miss Conyers, C.8.E., R.R.C, of Melbourne, who was Matron-in-Chief of the Australian Imperial Force Nursing Service. Miss Conyers is a New Zealander, but was trained and has been for years m Victoria. This

honour will give great satisfaction to Australian nurses. It is the second to be awarded to this part of the world, that to Miss Maclean, R.R.C, being the first.

Sister Christina Hunter, who returned from abroad at the' end of 1919, served first with the British Red Cross m England, later m Belgium (at Fumes, till the hospital was shelled), where she received a Belgian decoration. She also joined a unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals, attached to the Serbian Army, and later the staff of the Anglo-Russian Hospital at Petrograd. From there she was sent on to a field hospital almost on the Roumanian border, where she was for nearly eight months, until the unit was compelled to leave, with difficulty making their escape after great hardship and privation. For this service Sister Hunter received a Russian decoration equivalent m Russia to the British R.R.C. After this varied career Sister Hunter was temporarily attached to the New Zealand unit during the influenza epidemic, and then repatriated.