From a Timaru childhood to educated by Florence Nightingale and nursing on a hospital train
1862–1948
Military nursing
South African War
Timaru
Laura Russell Woollcombe was born in Timaru in 1862, the eldest child of Belfield and Frances Anne Woollcombe.
She grew up at Ashbury, the Woollcombe family home on land now associated with Ashbury Park. Her childhood connected her with one of Timaru’s early European settler families, but Laura’s own contribution took her far beyond South Canterbury.
As a young woman, Laura travelled to Britain and trained as a nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. Later accounts place the completion of her training around 1892, although her precise qualification date still needs confirmation from the hospital archives.
Laura subsequently joined Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Service Reserve, which provided trained nurses who could be called upon during military emergencies.
During the South African War of 1899 to 1902, she served as a military nurse in South Africa. Accounts of her service associate her with No. 2 Hospital Train and state that she worked aboard the train for about two years.
Hospital trains transported wounded and sick men from areas near the fighting to larger military hospitals. Nursing aboard them required clinical knowledge, organisation and the ability to continue treatment while patients, supplies and medical staff were constantly moving.
A surviving account attributed to Laura describes caring for wounded Boer prisoners as well as British soldiers. Patients were placed on mattresses when the available beds were filled, water was limited and nurses worked with the food, equipment and space available to them.
Her responsibilities reportedly included feeding patients, cleaning and dressing wounds, monitoring their condition and helping organise care during difficult journeys. The hospital train was not simply transport. It functioned as a moving medical service, and trained nurses were essential to keeping that service operating.
Laura’s story also needs to be understood within the wider history of the South African War. It was an imperial conflict that caused extensive military and civilian suffering. Laura’s reported care for wounded men from both sides demonstrates the practical nursing responsibility to respond to injury and illness, regardless of which army a patient belonged to.
Later family accounts state that Laura managed a dispensary at a British munitions factory during the First World War. The factory and the dates of this work have not yet been identified, so this part of her career requires further research.
In 1933, the Timaru Herald reported that Laura was returning to New Zealand aboard the Tainui and intended to make her home here. She settled again in Timaru, returning to the town where her life had begun more than seventy years earlier.
Laura died in Timaru on 19 October 1948, aged about 86.
She has sometimes been described as New Zealand’s first trained nurse, but this claim is not supported by the wider history of nursing education in New Zealand. Ellen Dougherty completed her nursing certificate at Wellington Hospital in 1887.
Laura’s significance does not depend on being labelled a “first”. She was an early New Zealand-born professionally trained nurse who undertook demanding military nursing work overseas. Her contribution lay in the skilled, organised and compassionate care she provided in conditions where space, water and medical resources were limited.
Impact: Laura Woollcombe helped make continuous medical care possible for wounded and sick men being transported across South Africa. Through her training, organisation and practical nursing work aboard a hospital train, she contributed to a mobile healthcare system operating under difficult wartime conditions. Her life also connects Ashbury and early Timaru with the international development of professional nursing and women’s expanding role in military healthcare.
Read more on WuHoo Timaru
Who Were the First European Babies Born in Timaru? Discovering the Woollcombes of Early Timaru
Home History: Ashbury House and the Woollcombe family
The Woollcombe family and their connection to Ashbury Park
Sources
South Canterbury Museum and Aoraki Heritage Collections, Laura Russell Woollcombe records and portrait.
Timaru Herald, 18 February 1933 and 20 October 1948, Papers Past and South Canterbury Museum collections.
Woollcombe family history, “Laura Russell Woollcombe”, including the account attributed to Laura about her South African nursing service.
Barts Health NHS Trust Archives, St Bartholomew’s Hospital nursing records, further verification required.
NZHistory, “World’s first state-registered nurses” and South African War resources.
Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps Association, history of Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Service Reserve.