Group photograph of members of the Kellyville-Rouse Hill Red Cross branch, taken probably in 1917 or 1918 / Creagh Photo, Parramatta
All of the women and girls in this photograph, taken probably in 1917 or 1918, were members of the Kellyville-Rouse Hill Red Cross branch, and many are wearing the Australian Red Cross brooch. More than half the group were office-bearers or committee members of the branch. Bessie Rouse is seated in the middle row, showing her best profile and wearing a hat embellished with sprays of wattle. She is the senior member of the group by a decade. Nina Terry is sitting on her mother’s right. One of the three girls in the front row is Doris Bennett, who was 12 years old when she attended the foundation meeting of the branch in August 1914.
The women have been provisionally identified as follows: Back row, left to right: Barbara Flint, Mrs Sutton, Mrs Workman, Mrs Hickman, Mary Pearce, Nina Pearce, Mrs Bennett, Ilma Pearce, Bertha Pearce, Elsie Stranger. Ilma Pearce may be a mis-identification for Alice Pearce. Middle row, left to right: Mrs Herb James, Mrs Smith, Mrs McLeod, Mrs Nina Terry, Mrs Bessie Rouse, Mrs Vernon, Mrs Flint.
Front row, left to right: Vesta James, Doris Bennett, Myra Bennett, Vera Stranger.