BROWN, Marion Sinclair
(Service number 22/104)
| First Rank | Nurse | Last Rank | Staff Nurse |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 06/10/1880 | Place of Birth | Scotland |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | 6 June 1915 | Age | 35 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Waimatuku, Southland | ||
| Occupation | Matron, Private Hospital | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | Mrs J.S Brown (mother), Waimatuku, Southland | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | Hospital Ship No.1 Maheno | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | NZ Army Nursing Service Corps | ||
| Date | 10 July 1915 | ||
| Transport | Maheno | ||
| Embarked From | Destination | Suez, Egypt | |
| Other Units Served With | No.1 Stationary Hospital, Port Said | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | NZ Army Nursing Service | ||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | |||
Award Circumstances and Date
No information
Prisoner of War Information
| Date of Capture | |
|---|---|
| Where Captured and by Whom | |
| Actions Prior to Capture | |
| PoW Serial Number | |
| PoW Camps | |
| Days Interned | |
| Liberation Date |
Death
| Date | 23 October 1915 | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | HT Marquette, Aegean Sea | ||
| Cause | Drowned | ||
| Memorial or Cemetery | |||
| New Zealand Memorials | On Memorial wall, Timaru | ||
Biographical Notes
Marion Brown was the daughter of Mrs. J. S. Brown, of Waiuatuku, Southland. She trained for nursing at Riverton and had worked at Waimate for approxmately 12 months prior to her enlistment.
Marion was one of the New Zealand nurses who died when the Marquette was torpedoed and sank in October 1915. The Marquette was a British Merchant ship of 7,057 tons. It sank when a torpedo launched from a submarine hit it 36 miles south of Salonika Bay. Twenty nine crew and 182 troops were lost. Ten of those who died were New Zealand nurses who had been working at No.1 New Zealand Stationary Hospital in Port Said in October 1915 when they were ordered to prepare to go to Lemnos. The hospital was to be set up there to care for casualties being brought back from the Dardanelles. The Transport Ship Marquette took on board officers and men of the New Zealand Medical Corps, 36 New Zealand Army Nursing Staff, 610 officers and men of 29th Divisional Ammunition Column, 541 mules and some ammunition in mid October sailed for Salonika. The French torpedo destroyer Tirailleur joined the convoy on 22 October which gave credence to the idea that there was a real danger of being attacked by German submarines in the Mediterranean. The torpedo destroyer left the convoy that night and at 9.15 am on 23 October the Marquette was hit by a torpedo on the starboard side and began to list. Within about 15 minutes she sank. Nurses lost their lives in the evacuation as lifeboats tipped over as they were lowered into the sea, some boats falling on others, with some being left on the ship and going down with her. Nurse Brown is said to have held hands with nurse Isabel Clark as they went into the sea.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Databse (Oct 2013); SC GenWeb Project (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzlscant/marquette.htm)
External Links
Related Documents
No documents available.
Researched and Written by
Carol Bell, SC branch NZSG & Timaru Herald; David Batchelor, South Canterbruy Museum
Currently Assigned to
Not assigned.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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