HOBLER, Minnie

Minnie Hobler was born in 1875 in Rockhampton, Queensland. She was the ninth of the eleven children of Francis Helvetius Hobler (1825-1889) and his wife Jessie Ann (nee Learmonth) (1838-1910).

Minnie's forebears on both sides were pioneer settlers in the colonies - Van Dieman's Land and New South Wales for her Hobler grandfather George, and Tasmania and Victoria for her Learmonth grandfather Andrew. Both families experienced prosperous times and financial hardship but by the time Minnie was born in 1875, her father was a substantial landowner at Westwood near Rockhampton. He died in 1889, and his widow and eldest son (also Francis Helvetius) ran the property, 'Bucknalla'.

Whatever the impetus to take a career in nursing - loss of young siblings,  a strong spirit of pioneering and public mindedness inherited from her family - Minnie left the family property and trained as a nurse at the Brisbane General Hospital from late 1904 to 1907. She completed the registration requirements for the Australasian Trained Nurses Association and subsequently the Victorian Trained Nurses Association.

War Service

Nursing was a mobile profession and Minnie's family had Victorian connections both through the Learmonths and the professional interests of her brother Francis (later named next of kin on her enlistment forms). After nine years at Brisbane General Hospital, she came to work in Melbourne in 1913 or 1914. She appears on the 1914 electoral roll as living at 340 Albert St, East Melbourne, 'Winfield', which was a home to a number of nurses. 

Within three months of war being declared, she applied to join the Australian Army Nursing Service. She was the first of her siblings to enlist.

By this time Minnie had accumulated seven years experience as a trained nurse in hospital and private nursing. She cited on her application supervisory experience in various wards, hospital housekeeping, operating theatres, and infectious diseases. 

Minnie formally enlisted on 14 November 1914, and sailed later that month with the 1st Australian General Hospital on the official hospital ship "Kyarra". Among the nurses onboard was a group with East Melbourne connections, including Bertha McKinnell also from 340 Albert St, and Eleanor Kendall and Estelle Lee-Archer from Crathie House. A group of friends and colleagues were on an adventure together.  

The "Kyarra" travelled via India, the Red Sea and Suez and arrived in Cairo in January 1915. 1 Australian General Hospital was set up in the Heliopolis Palace Hotel, outside Cairo, and proceeded to treat a dreadful onslaught of casualties from Gallipoli. The numbers were so great that several auxiliary hospitals were set up elsewhere. Promoted to Sister in December 1915, Minnie worked at the No 3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital, which comprised a series of shelters roofed in with matting built over tennis courts on the Heliopolis sporting centre.  She also made a rapid turn around trip from Egypt to Australia in early 1915, accompanying wounded soldiers on the "Kyarra", the same ship on which she had sailed several months earlier. 

She was an avid photographer, and an album of her photographs from her period in Egypt is still in family hands. 

Sister Hobler was mentioned in despatches for her work at No 3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital. She told her family that the award was for bravery under fire, when she went into the field to treat the wounded as there were no stretcher bearers. She also recounted carrying a large officer from the field of battle. 

1 AGH was moved from Egypt to France in early 1916 to deal with the escalating casualties in the Western Front. When the unit arrived in Rouen in April 1916, Minnie was detached for duty with British hospitals in the north of France, first to No 6 Stationary Hospital in Havres, then No 6 General Hospital in coastal Le Treport, and then Frevent. 

In Frevent she became ill. She was admitted to No 6 Stationary Hospital in Etaples in November 1916 and a gastric ulcer was diagnosed. She was sent to England via Calais, and admitted to the Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service Hospital in Vincent Square London. 

A board of British medical officers declared her unfit for service at home or abroad for some months. The specific cause of her condition, they determined, was food and stress brought about by her military service. Minnie was repatriated back to Australia on the hospital ship "Kanowna".

On her return to Melbourne, her case was considered by another medical board at the 11 Australian General Hospital. The doctors concurred with the previous board. Minnnie Hobler was permanently unfit for military service, but she was able to earn her living at her profession. She was discharged in April 1917. Several months later she attended a Red Cross Society meeting in country Victoria, and may have spoken on her war experiences (Geelong Advertiser, 13 August 1917). 

After the War

Minnie resumed her profession as a nurse on her return, initially at No 11 Australian General Hospital (Caulfield Military Hospital). She was matron of the hospital in Wonthaggi, Victoria during the influenza epidemic and then ran the influenza section at No 5 Australian General Hospital in St Kilda Rd, Melbourne until it closed. She was matron of Guildford Hospital in Shepparton in 1920 then of her own private hospital, Gracemere, in A'Beckett St, Kew in the early 1920a until her ill-health intervened (UNA, Vol XIII (4), 30.6.1920, Vol XX (9), 1.11.1922, p169, Vol XXI (6), 1.8.1923, pp104-05).

Hobler sold the hospital and took easier positions in boarding schools (Ballarat Grammar and St Catherine's Toorak) but as she explained to the Edith Cavell Trustees from whom she sought assistance on several occasions in the 1920s, rest brought recovery from illness but work brought recurrence. The Trustees, who provided assistance to sick and needy army nurses, provided her with grants of between £10 and £20. The last grant was made in 1929 as a loan towards purchase of a rest home she was considering (M. Hobler, Application, Edith Cavell Trust Fund, M290, M291 NAA). 

She did travel overseas as nurse/companion several times, for example with her cousin Harold Learmonth of Hamilton, Victoria.

At the age of 60, about 1935, she left Australia to live in the United Kingdom. After war broke out, she nursed during the Blitz as a civilian volunteer. Her letters to family in Rockhampton, which were occasionally published in the local papers, described in some detail living conditions, precautions against invasion and air raids. She was injured in one attack, but her fur coat (apparently the objective of the Nazi attack according to her neighbours) was saved (Central Queensland Herald, 14 August 1941). She also spent time at an air force station in southern England. Her adventures were also recounted in UNA, journal of the Royal Victorian Trained Nurses Association (Vol.XXXIX (10), 1.10.1941, p225-26): in a bomb attack, she was buried

up to her waist. The rescue party took 1 1/2 hours to dig her out. Miss Hobler describes how she and a maid leaped from place to place putting out fires. Washing is a great difficulty ... [Her hair] "recently waved just stands up inches deep in dirt. Furniture is reduced to matchwood. Coupons are needed for clothes. The garden is a mass of roses". 

Minnie survived the war and returned to Australia, living for a time again in Kew. 

She was living in England, in Ravensbourne Kent, when she died aged 87.