II
Hamilton

But to turn once more to the newly formed 4th NZ General Hospital. On 1 September, 1942, the remnants of the staffs of the Fijian hospitals were amalgamated, and, under Major J. D. Willis as temporary commander, the new unit moved from Papakura Military Camp to Wesley College, Paerata. The policy at the time seems to have been to form a 600-bed hospital for a fairly rapid move with the Third Division to a Pacific war zone. However, owing to American successes on Guadalcanal the need for hurry was not so great, and a final policy was adopted whereby a 600-bed hospital was established, with extra surgical equipment, so that a 200-bed hospital could., if necessary, be budded off from it at any time.

We spent a little over a month at Paerata, where we were occupied mainly with training and in sorting the Fiji equipment in Auckland. When, in October, it was decided that the Third NZ Division should operate in the Waikato district, we moved to Hamilton, and, at the Hamilton West School, where additional page 43veterans of the Fijian hospitals were rallied together, we set up a tented hospital to service the division. It was here that our administrative and medical staffs were appointed. Lieutenant-Colonel A. A. Tennent, NZMC, recently returned from service with the Second Division, was appointed commanding officer; Lieutenant-Colonel E. Y. Comrie, NZMC, the former commander of Tamavua Hospital, became OC Surgical Division; Lieutenant-Colonel E. G. Sayers, NZMC, then on his way back from the Middle East, became OC Medical Division; and Miss D. M. Hall, NZANS, the erstwhile matron of Tamavua Hospital, was appointed matron.

The hospital at the Hamilton West School was only partly equipped, and many personnel were still scattered, some under-going training at the Waikato Hospital, others in Wellington, where the quartermaster, Captain J. G. Oliver, was collecting, sorting and packing the 800-odd shipping tons of stores and equipment which eventually left New Zealand for the 4th NZ General Hospital. The members of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service were assembled at Papakura Camp and were kept busy preparing dressings for future use overseas and in completing all necessary pre-embarkation formalities. On 11 November, 1942, the hospital closed, and the packing of equipment commenced, to be later despatched to Wellington.

Happy days these were at Hamilton, with everyone keyed up at the thought of adventure ahead in strange lands. Many will recall the heartburning as Christmas approached and the likelihood of special Christmas leave seemed slender. An advanced party, under Lieutenant-Colonel Sayers, had departed on 27 November with other troops of the Third Division for an unknown destination, and expectation and speculation ran high. During this period the 4th NZ General Hospital had grown by the addition of four attached units—Nos. 1 and 2 Field Surgical Units, under Majors P. C. Brunette and G. E. Waterworth respectively, No. 1 Field Transfusion Unit, under Lieutenant I. M. Cairney, later to become registrar of the hospital, and No. 1 Army Optician Unit, under Lieutenant E. R. Boyd. With the exception of the latter unit which, happily, was associated with us throughout our future existence, these attachments were lost to us to the 2nd NZ Casualty Clearing Station when this unit joined the force some time later.

The hospital proper embarked in two parties—working parties page 44at Wellington on 24 December and the remainder at Auckland on 28 December. Baggage parties realised for the first time that the sisters had arrived as they laboured up the gangway with suitcases and kit bags in wild profusion containing those mysteries of the official NZANS kit that still confound the pundits. Then followed an uneventful voyage characterised chiefly by the close proximity of one's fellow human beings and all too infrequent visits on a roster basis to the upper decks.