Lucy Grace Lillywhite

Published on 09 April 2020

In 1938 Lucy Grace Lillywhite embarked on the RMS Maloja headed for London to undertake study in postgraduate nursing and hospital administration at Bedford College. Lucy was the third Australian woman, and second South Australian, to receive the prestigious Florence Nightingale Scholarship. Lucy’s plans to return to Adelaide in 1939 were abandoned when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis on a visit to Norway. As her health deteriorated in hospital she observed the outbreak of war in Europe before passing away in 1942. 

Lucy grew up in her family home ‘Perroomba’ in Wattle Park, named after the wattle that grew in the area. Perroomba was located on the corner of Penfold and Simpson roads, adjoining the reservoir. Near the house stood a large fig tree, along with mulberry, pepper, lime and almond trees. At the young age of 10, Lucy wrote to the children’s segment of the Australian Christian Commonwealth newspaper: ‘I have a garden of my own, and grow nemesias, iceland poppies, violets, anemones, sweet peas, snapdragons, lilies, larkspurs etc … The wattle that is coming into bloom is just lovely’.

^{Lucy's family home 'Perroomba', Wattle Park. Built 1907.}

In 1926, Lucy completed her secondary education at Methodist Ladies College in Wayville. From here she became a trainee at the Memorial Hospital in North Adelaide, before undergoing further nursing study at the Royal Melbourne Women’s Hospital.  

During her training at the Memorial Hospital in the early 1930s, Lucy kept a diary, in which she wrote about her studies and meditations on her faith. While working nights Lucy pondered how: ‘sometimes, when one has a moment to spare, it is lovely to creep on to the balcony and gaze out at the night, sometimes dark and cloudy, sometimes clear, cold and starry, and at other times bright with moonlight so that it is almost the day. Dawn is wonderful. To watch the first light appear over the eastern hills after working all night thru’ the dark makes one feel alive again’. 

Lucy’s diary frequently revealed her grave concerns that she was not pious enough: ‘Am so glad it is Sunday again and must behave better than I did last Sabbath’. Lucy dreamed of finding a partner with whom she could start a family. However, she pushed these thoughts aside because she had devoted herself to becoming a missionary: ‘I pray for the one who is to be my companion - if I ever am to have one. It is no use, I must settle down and work properly and cast such thoughts of menfolk aside’. Lucy often worried about this inner tension between her life’s calling and her desire to settle down with a companion. 

On 30 June 1938 Lucy set off to Europe, stopping first at Perth, then Colombo, Bombay, Aden, through the Suez Canal, Marseille, Gibraltar, before finally arriving in Plymouth. Lucy considered herself a good sailor and was content to have ‘bathed in the water of many oceans’. She kept busy on the journey; working in the ship’s hospital, watching sports and boxing matches on the deck, and keeping up with her daily chores. Lucy struggled to find time to write letters home. Every day was ‘all play, sleep and chatter’. She kept various souvenirs from the ship including the dinner menu from 12 July, which included green turtle soup and ox tongue, among other exotic delicacies. 

Tourist Dinner on the P&O R.M.S Maloja, Tuesday 12 July 1938.

Many nights on board were spent in conversation with gentlemen who offered drinks and cigarettes - but she only ever accepted ginger ale. On one occasion her fellow passengers tried to convince her to drink a drop of gin: ‘But no! I must be strong and refuse’. She insisted in her diary, and particularly in her letters home to her family, that she was not falling in love with these gentlemen: ‘Don’t worry about all my gentlemen conversationalists. I’m very careful, don’t let them talk to me unless I want them to’. 

Upon arrival in London in mid-August Lucy launched into her studies at Bedford College. She immediately felt inadequate compared to the other nurses, whom Lucy believed were more widely read and spoke various languages. On her second day, Lucy admitted that she felt ‘not at all up to the standard of the other students mentally.’ Lucy filled her busy days with hospital visits, lectures, classes, reading, sightseeing, attending church and occasionally visiting the theatre and cinema with fellow nurses. She continued to feel as if she was learning a lot but lacking in discipline. ‘So far I seem to have arranged my time very badly. My will is weak and I need strengthening very much. Seem to have done so much aimless wandering … must discipline myself more in order to uphold my heritage (of family, of country - of church - of belief)’.

A few weeks into her scholarship Lucy wrote: ‘First day of spring at home - I begin already to long for smell of damp gums and wattle and almond blossom.’ Only two weeks later she began observing the volatile political situation and sense of impending war. On 14 September Lucy wrote that Neville Chamberlain was leaving for Germany the day after to speak with Hitler, '... a little music seems the only opportunity for respite’. London’s war preparations revealed St James Park ‘disfigured with trenches’, bomb shelters dug out of squares, and compulsory mask fittings for all nurses. 

Following the signing of the Munich agreement on 30 September, Lucy reflected that ‘a new month and we trust a new era has begun.’ She continued: ‘Thank god - the horrid guns - trenches, masks, bombs, sandbags etc which meet one at every turn in the lovely old parks and squares won’t be here’. Unfortunately, less than a year would pass before Lucy documented Germany’s invasion of Poland, marking the beginning of the Second World War.  

After receiving her diploma in July 1939 Lucy travelled around Norway with some friends. Later in the month, Lucy was admitted into a hospital in Oslo after becoming increasingly unwell with tuberculosis. While receiving treatment and awaiting possible surgery she wrote about the books she was reading and her progress learning Norwegian. In early September Lucy commented on the progressing events of the Second World War, such as on 29 September when she recorded ‘the sinking of 6 Scandinavian ships this week’. Although she had varied access to newspapers, Lucy struggled to translate the Norwegian news into English, and sometimes only managed to translate one paragraph before getting too tired. She often wrote in her letters home that she wished she had returned to Australia in July, but she always assured her family that she was not miserable and still had lots to be thankful for.

At the back of her diary, she recorded her temperature twice daily, her symptoms, and occasionally her weight. She stopped writing in her diary and tracking her health in early 1940, shortly after being moved to Glittre Sanatorium in Norway. Her final diary entry shows her deep gratitude to her doctor for the few minutes of company he shared with her each week and follows: ‘Why should I feel alone - or miserable … Am I selfish? Am I lazy? In brain and soul as well as body? - So ends January at Glittre - many new experiences and new thoughts and feelings.’ Later she was moved to the Red Cross Hospital in Follbu where she passed away in 1942. 

^{'Death in Norway of S.A. Nurse', The Advertiser, 23 May 1942}

According to Lucy’s sister, Sally, the diaries were kept in Oslo until after the end of the war when they were finally returned to her family in Adelaide. 

Lucy’s letters, diaries and other documents were donated to the City of Burnside Local History Collection and are available to be viewed in the Burnside library’s local history room on request. 

Bibliography:

• ‘Death in Norway of S.A. Nurse,’ The Advertiser, 23 May 1942.
• ‘For the Children,’ Australian Christian Commonwealth, 29 August 1919.
• ‘Leaving Honors,’ The News, 17 December 1926. 
• ‘Personal,’ The Register, 24 November 1923. 
• ‘S.A. Nurse Dies in Norway,’ The News, 22 May 1942. 
• ‘Scholarship Winner Plans Work,’ The Australian Women’s Weekly, 23 July 1938. 

Written by Claire Morey, City of Burnside Local History Volunteer.