Important Queen's South Africa Medal
Awarded to Nurse Frances "Fanny" E Hines, the first Australian woman to die on active service.
Born in 1864, Frances Hines, known to her friends as Fanny, was the fourth daughter of Patrick and Eleanor Hines. A trained nurse she embarked on the 'Euryalus' in March 1900, as one of ten Victorian nursing sisters, accompanying the Third Bushmen's Contingent.
Sisters Anderson, Rawson, Walter and Thomson, were also stationed with Sister Hines in Rhodesia. In Sister Ellen Walter's letter of 15 July 1900 she wrote "Sister Frances Hines is at Enkeldoorn but we expect her here soon. She has been a long time alone there. On 7 August 1900, following a severe case of pneumonia, Fanny Hines died at the Memorial Hospital, Bulawayo.
Her friend, Sister Julia Anderson later wrote: " … she died of an attack of pneumonia contracted in devotion to duty. She was quite alone with as many as twenty-six patients at one time, with no possibility of assistance or relief and without sufficient nourishment."
Frances Hines was buried with full military honours in Bulawayo cemetery. Her headstone was erected by the Victorian nurses and Bushmen.

PROVENANCE:
Collection Late Kenneth F. Russell (1911-1987), Professor of Anatomy and Medical History, University of Melbourne.

Estimate $3,000-6,000