Nellie Elizabeth Stronach
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Nellie Elizabeth Stronach MBE (28 March 1892 – 20 November 1991) was an Australian officer in the Australian Women's Army Service. She later worked as a welfare officer for the YWCA in Japan.[1]
Stronach was the only child of John Stronach, a marine engineer who had immigrated from Scotland, and his wife Helen née McDonald. She was born in Balmain, a suburb of Sydney, and attended private school until she was 12 and, after this, she was educated by a governess until the age of 15. Because of her father's heritage and the work that he did Stronach and her family spent significant periods in Scotland during her childhood.[1]
In 1908, when Stronach was 16, the family moved to Ballina, likely for her father's work and there she ran an infants' school. She became involved in the music scene there and sang at various concerts, functions and music festivals. During World War I, in which she lost her fiancé, she volunteered with the Australian Red Cross and the Girls' Patriotic League of which she was president.[1][2][3][4]
In 1920 the family returned to Sydney where, alongside caring for her aging parents, Stronach became a partner in a tea and sandwich shop.[5] In 1930 she joined the Young Women's Christian Association in Sydney and she ran their cafeteria from about 1935. This was possible as both her parents died in the 1930s which freed her from her caring responsibilities.[1]
