New Zealand Army Nursing Service

With the closing of the military hospitals in 1922, all members of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service were placed on the reserve, except a Matron-in-Chief and matrons in each of the military districts who were appointed on a part-time basis and without any honorarium. Their duties consisted mainly in assisting in the training of Medical Corps personnel.

The New Zealand Army Nursing Service was placed on a peacetime establishment of a Matron-in-Chief, a Principal Matron, four

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matrons, and sixty-two sisters and staff nurses. Miss Hester Mac-Lean, who was Matron-in-Chief in the First World War, had been followed during the peace years by Miss J. Bicknell and Miss F. Wilson, and in 1934 Miss I. G. Willis¹ appointed Matron-in-Chief, a position which she was to hold until 1946.