Historical information

Newspaper - 'The forgotten heroine'
Visitors to New Cheltenham Cemetery in Melbourne would not know that a highly decorated and dedicated nurse was buried there. Her grave is unmarked, there is no reference to her achievements or selfless dedication. Estelle Lee Archer died in 1960, at the Repatriation General Hospital, Heidelberg, age 78 from a perforated ulcer. Margaret Leyden wants the Office of Australian War Graves to recognise that her great-aunt died from war-related injuries and to restore and maintain her grave. Margaret, who never met her aunt, has pieced together her history, including that Estelle's medals, including the prestigious Royal Red Cross 2nd Class for services in support of our ANZACs have ended up in the MAryborough Military & Colonial Museum after they were bought at a second hand shop. Estelle served in seven army units and was in the Middle East, England and France for the duration of World War 1. After the war she continued to dedicate her life to the care of soldiers.

Document 1 - digitised copy of 'First Wold War Embarkation Roll' for Estelle Frances Lee-Archer

Document 2 - photocopy of 'Austraalian Imperial Force - Nominal Roll' page 7 (Lee-Archer, Estelle Frances listed)

Document 3 - photocopy of unknown document (Sis. Lee-Archer, Estelle (RRC) listed)

Physical description

Five photocopied pages held together with a plastic paperclip.
Two pages are of a newspaper story, the first showing a full page black and white photo of a seated older woman holding a photo of a woman in nurse's uniform. The second page of the newspaper story has four columns of text with a photo of a war medal and a photo of a standing woman in nurse's uniform beside them.
The final three pages are war-time documents.