(1887-1929)
Occupation: nurse
Rank: Sister
ServiceNumber: 22/257
Force: NZANS
FAMILY
Born 21 September 1887 Richmond.
Parents – Roderick and Alice McRae [nee Moffat].
Siblings – Alice (b.1873), Roderick (b.1883, married Julia Burke), Cora (b.1885, married Norman Fulton), Isabella (b.1881) and Philip (b.1890).
Children – Daughter (b.1923), Son (b. 1925).
PRE WAR
Rhoda grew up in Richmond and lived at the family home ‘Bonovoree’. She attended Richmond Girls Primary School from 1893 to 1901. She then began as a day pupil at Nelson College for Girls in 1903 and became a boarder in 1904. After leaving school Rhoda worked for Mrs MacLaren in 1908 as a daily Governess. In 1911 she was living with her Mother in Shakespeare Walk but in the same year moved to Christchurch Hospital to begin her nurses training.
1914
Rhoda completed her nursing training at Christchurch Hospital and in June became a Ward Sister.
1915
On 1 December Rhoda enlisted in the New Zealand Army Nursing Service (service number 22/257). She embarked on the Hospital Ship “Marama” for Egypt on 4 December along with her sister Isabella.
1916
Rhoda arrived and disembarked at Suez on 11 January. She was appointed to the 31st General Hospital at Port Said. On 30 September, Rhoda left Egypt bound for England. She first embarked on the Hospital Ship “Braemar Castle” bound for Madras where she transferred to the Hospital Ship “Brittanic” and finally arrived in England. On 11 October Rhoda was taken on strength as a Staff Nurse at Walton on Thames, also referred to as No. 2 New Zealand General Hospital.
1917
At the beginning of March Rhoda became ill with influenza and was admitted to the Nurses Rest Home at Sandwich, remaining there for a month. She then returned to duty at No. 2 New Zealand General Hospital. She was then attached to the Hospital Ship “Tainui” which was returning to New Zealand with sick and injured soldiers. The ship left England on 2 November.
1918
Rhoda arrived back in New Zealand in January aboard the ship “Tainui”. After disembarking she was posted to the Waikato Sanatorium at Cambridge, a hospital for the treatment of Tuberculosis.
POST WAR
Rhoda transferred on 19 January 1918 to Christchurch to work at Chalmers Orthopaedic Hospital. By mid-1919 she was nursing at Trentham Military Hospital and was in charge of the Plaster Department. She was discharged from service on 1 February 1920. Rhoda became engaged to Captain Daniel Frank Myers (1890-1950), a doctor, in 1921 and married on 1 March 1922. The couple had two children. Rhoda became ill in 1929 and died of pneumonia on 5 July 1929 in Wellington.