She was responsible for ensuring the establishment of a benevolent fund to support trained nurses during periods of sickness or financial hardship.
The letter also implied that the acting matron had turned down offers of other jobs in her desire to remain in the post vacated by Thurston.
At a meeting of concerned citizens in Christchurch called to chastise the board for its treatment of returning war workers, comments were made about the way it was treating Thurston.
Despite letters of support from Colonel William Parkes (who had been director of the New Zealand Medical Corps in the latter half of the war) and Brigadier General George Richardson and others the board remained unmoved and terminated Thurston's appointment.
[7] Thurston returned to New Zealand in January 1920 and by March had taken up the position of matron at the King George V Military Hospital at Rotorua.
While Dunedin had concerns about her age it did not stop Thurston serving as matron at Pukeora Sanatorium in Waipukurau from 1924 to early 1927, after which she retired to England in that same year.
[1] With the exception of one period when she became ill from overwork, she traveled an average of 1,000 miles a month visiting New Zealand soldiers, airmen and sailors in British hospitals during the week as well as on weekend writing letters on their behalf to their parents.
Originally, she made her visits by train, carrying heavy loads of gifts until the association provided her with a car and a female driver (first, A. Bauchop and later Betty Forsyth).
[1][13] Thurston is honoured by a stained-glass window titled "The Conversion of St Paul" in the Nurses' Memorial Chapel in Christchurch.