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Nursing staff with patients at Westwood Sanatorium early 1920s DescriptionNursing staff with patients relaxing in the garden at the Westwood Sanatorium in the early 1920s. Westwood was opened in 1919 principally to treat Miner's Phthisis. However, it soon became a specialist hospital to treat cases of tuberculosis. The person second from right is the Superintendent Sister Ida Marie Axelsen who was appointed to the Sanatorium from its opening in August 1919 after serving for several years in the Australian Army Nursing Service during World War 1. She left the position in early August 1923. Ida Axelsen was born in Tiaro in 1878 and trained at the Maryborough General Hospital. source: achha.org.au/detailed.php?num=1

Thomas Charles Beirne was born in Ballymacurly, Ireland in 1860. After completing his schooling in 1880 he was employed as a draper with the Gallagher Brothers until he was persuaded by a friend to migrate to Australia. So, in 1884 Beirne set off for Melbourne, Australia on the ‘Lusitania’, where he was promptly employed by draper Eyre and Sheppard. In 1886 T. C. Beirne took up a partnership with a Mr Piggot in Brisbane, coming together to form a drapery store in Stanley Street. However, after a fire ripped through the store in 1889 the partnership was dissolved and Beirne went on to bigger and better things. After establishing a small store in Fortitude Valley, Beirne was once again offered the opportunity to join in a partnership this time with a Scottish gentleman by the name of James McWirther. Together they operated a business in the Valley, a major shopping precinct in the 1890s. After three years, however, James McWirther decided to open a rival store prompting serious competition for Beirne, who at this point in time had just opened his first small T. C. Beirne’s store in the town of Ipswich. Source: www.ipswichlibraries.com.au/the-beirne-family-irish-retai...

Red Cross Society in Queensland Within weeks, 196 branches were established across Queensland, as the Society’s mission and ideals spread and thousands of people, mostly women, volunteered in towns all over the state. Joining the Society gave its volunteers a dutiful purpose and a sense that they could contribute to the war effort from the home front. Their tireless work provided money, clothing, comforts for the sick and wounded, and equipment for military hospitals in Queensland and overseas. The geographical distance between branches presented many challenges, and the nature of district activities was adapted for each branch location. Some branches held fundraising events, and knitted and sewed socks, towels, and vests, while others sewed uniforms, or put together comfort parcels containing soap, cigarettes, fruit cake, tinned foods, and handkerchiefs. Remote branches with few resources sometimes simply collected money. The Queensland division established its headquarters at 409 Adelaide Street, Brisbane, and it became the communications centre and distribution point for all goods made, collected, or donated in the branches. From headquarters, goods were repackaged and sent to military hospitals in Queensland, or overseas to England for distribution, directly to troops in France and Belgium, or to field hospitals in Europe, the Middle East, and India. In 1915, several Queensland branches raised £450 to buy motor ambulances to send to the front line. An Information Bureau was also established in 1915, to help families obtain information about their loved ones overseas. By 1917, the Queensland division had turned its attention to providing supplies for Australian prisoners of war in Germany. By June 1918, there were 225 Red Cross member-based branches in Queensland. Most were run by women, many of whom remained with the organisation after the war, to provide a lifetime of service. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/red-cross-society-queensland