Recognising Wonderful Women

In May 1934, in their respective roles as Patron of the Bush Nursing Association (BNA), Lady Gwendolen Game (d. 1972) and her husband Sir Philip Woolcott Game (1876-1961), visited Lightning Ridge Cottage Hospital in north-west NSW with their children Rosemary and Philip.

A rural health service established in Australia in 1911, the BNA in Lightning Ridge began when one nurse arrived in 1914 and started living in the local hotel. The Cottage Hospital was built the following year, and the BNA only grew from there. It went on to become one of ten longest running services in NSW and the only one that still supported two nurses when the scheme was absorbed into the Health Commission’ in 1975.

The Game’s visit to Lightning Ridge was part of a wider Vice-Regal tour of Western NSW. Coinciding with the height of the Great Depression, Sir Philip was appointed Governor of NSW in 1930. As one in three breadwinners were out of work and Australian families struggled to make ends meet, he requested that his salary be reduced as a personal contribution to economic recovery.

This principled decision may have earned the warm welcome given at Lightning Ridge from Sister Septima Jones, a recently registered BNA nurse from Kyneton, Victoria, pictured with the Game family. The very presence of Lady Game also helped garner the party’s energetic reception.

A strong supporter of women, Lady Game took her role as Patron of the BNA seriously. When giving her response at the Vice Regal Luncheon held in Lightning Ridge during the visit she praised the local women saying, ‘I … take the opportunity of expressing my admiration for the wonderful women of the west. … The mothers and wives have created the west. Their courage and fortitude even under most adverse conditions fill me with the deepest admiration.’

Later that year, she published a book of poetry and speeches which she dedicated to the women of NSW with proceeds going to the District Nursing Association. It was considered ‘a fine record of the great interest taken by this lady in all matters of social welfare.’