The tragedy of the nurses

The loss of the ship Marquette in World War One was always going to be a tragedy but for New Zealand it was devastating.
The Marquette was a British transport ship on the way to Salonika (Thesaloniki) on October 23, 1915, when it was sunk by a German Uboat.
On board were 36 nurses plus eight officers, nine non-commissioned officers and 77 orderlies of the New Zealand Medical Corps.
Earlier in the month they had been in Alexandria before being ordered to pack up and leave, going to support French and British forces.
Also onboard were the 500 men and officers of the ammunition column of the British 29th Division, plus 500 mules, some horses and many wagons loaded with ammunition.
Crucially the troop ship was not marked with the Red Cross that would have given them a measure of protection.
Just before the ship was due to arrive, its escort (and protection) was called off.
Just after 9am on October 23, some of the nurses were walking on the deck when they saw something in the water. It was a torpedo and it struck forward on the right side of the ship.
Well trained, those on board hurried to grab their life jackets and went to the lifeboats.
They managed to get the first lifeboat into the water but the second was stuck and when the Marquette rose in the water as she was sinking, the lifeboat swung and fell, fatalling injuring some and killing others.
On the other side a lifeboat hit a door tipping up and nurses fell into the water. Once in the sea, the lifeboat then capsized, losing more.
As those in the boats watched, the Marquette sank bow first.
An SOS had been sent but unknown to the survivors waiting for rescue, the uboat who sunk the Marquette had sent another - giving a totally different location. It was there the rescuers went first - so it was late afternoon before they found the survivors.
It took more than a day for a full roll call to be made and it was found that 10 New Zealand nurses had been killed: Marion Brown, Isabel Clark, Catherine Fox, Mary Gorman, Nona Hildyard, Helena Isdell, Mabel Jamieson, Mary Rae, Lorna Rattray and Margaret Rogers. The only bodies recovered were those of Rogers and Isdell. Also dead were 22 New Zealand men. Of the 741 onboard the Marquette, 167 had perished.
Questions were asked about why the nurses in particular were on an unmarked ship carrying ammunition when another more appropriate ship was available but they were never satisfactorily answered.
Even those who survived had life changing injuries and were unable to continue their service.
Many of the nurses who died were from the South Island and the tragedy plunged the country into mourning.
Mary Grigor who survived gave accounts of the horror - she described the launching of the lifeboats as a failure.
Once she was in the water, Grigor had her arm crushed and struggled to stay afloat and around her, people were dying.
The nurses are of course, recorded as lost at sea - although a number have memorials in cemeteries around the country.​