Suevic (A29) at sea.
Her story caused a sensation in the press at the time. She was described by newspaper reporters as “a clear-skinned, rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed type of healthy country girl”, a “Kurri Kurri Amazon” who wanted to get to the front to do her bit for the war effort. But Maud didn’t actually want to go away and fight.
“I had a terrible desire to help in some way, but I was only a girl,” she told reporters on Christmas Day 1915.
“I wanted to join the Red Cross, and I tried very hard to get accepted.
“I knew it would be no use to stay in Kurri Kurri, because I would never learn to be a nurse there.