Lives of the First World War

Group portrait of Australian soldiers and nurses, guests at the wedding of 4454 Corporal (Cpl) George Charles Laffin, 3rd Australian General Hospital (3AGH), and Sister Nellie Alfreda (Nell) Pike, of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). Charles Laffin enlisted on 2 May 1915. Shortly after his wedding he undertook officer training in Cambridge and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on 1 April 1918. He returned to Australia on 24 August 1918. Nellie Pike enlisted on 3 July 1915 and embarked from Sydney as a Staff Nurse on RMS Orontes on 31 July 1915. She served on Lemnos with 3AGH during the Gallipoli campaign, and then at the Bulkley Rest Home in Abassia. On 5 October 1916 she arrived in England with 3AGH and served at the Kitchener War Hospital in Brighton. On 23 March 1917 she was detached to duty at the No 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Harefield, then on 9 September 1917 to duty at the Australian Nurses Home in St Albans.