Louisa Bicknell

Bicknell was born in Abbotsford, Victoria, Australia in 1879, the seventh of twelve children of Eliza and John Bicknell.^[2] She initially learnt dressmaking, but later decided to train as a nurse. She trained at Mooroopna Hospital and worked at the Women’s Hospital.^[2]

Bicknell opened her own private hospital at Bairnsdale and nursed there for eight years.^[2] In April 1915 she enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service and embarked for Egypt on the Kyarra. She was stationed at Heliopolis, Cairo at the No.1 Australian General Hospital.^[3]

Bicknell sustained a scratch on her hand while nursing wounded soldiers, and developed pyaemia, a type of infection.^[2][4] She was ill for about six days, and died on 25 June 1915.^[1][2] Before she died, it was reported that she said: "How hard it is to die with so little accomplished, but I would go through it all again to help."^[4]

Bicknell is buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery.^[5] She is remembered on the Bairnsdale Shire honour roll and on a memorial to overseas nurses who died in World War I at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in London.^[2]