Agnes Macready

[1] In 1898 Macready began writing articles and poems, and creating drawings, for the Sydney newspaper The Catholic Press under the pen name Arrah Luen.

[3] Agnes was appointed as Matron at the Berrima District Cottage Hospital in the Southern Highland of New South Wales on 11 October 1894.

[5] She arrived before the first contingent of Australian troops, and initially the British War Office told her that no nurses were needed in the country and advised to leave.

However, she was also advised to apply to rural locations, which she did, and was offered a position at Fort Napier Military Hospital in Pietermaritzburg.

[3] Prior to leaving Sydney, The Catholic Press had commissioned Macready as a special correspondent, and she filed reports for the newspaper from South Africa on her experiences there.