Elizabeth Burchill

Who was Elizabeth Burchill?

Dora Elizabeth Burchill S.R.N., R.M., T.C. O.A.M. was an Australian nurse, philanthropist and author.

She was the youngest child of Athelstane Chase Burchill and his wife Rosina née Sherrin of Camberwell, Victoria.

Sister Burchill trained as a nurse in Homeopathic and Women's Hospitals in Melbourne and joined the nursing service of the Australian Inland Mission, and in 1930 started at the Innamincka Nursing Home, where she worked with the fledgling Flying Doctor Service. In 1932 she left for the Royal Hospital for Women and Children in London to gain further qualifications and later joined a British medical unit which was caring for children at Almeria displaced by the Spanish Civil War. In 1937 she joined Wilfred Grenfell's mission on the coast of Labrador.

At the outbreak of the Second World War Sister Burchill enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service, serving with the 2nd AIF in Egypt and Palestine.

After her discharge in 1946, she worked as announcer with station 3SR, Shepparton, Victoria, where she formed the "Friendship Club", then in 1952 took charge of the Child Welfare Clinic in Darwin, Northern Territory, followed by a brief stint as a Plunket nurse in New Zealand. She served as Sister in Charge of the Child Welfare Clinic on Thursday Island, then from 1961 to 1963 with the New Guinea health service.