Lizzie Ida Grace Willis

Lizzie Ida Grace Willis (29 December 1881 – 7 March 1968) was a notable New Zealand civilian and military nurse, hospital inspector, matron, army nursing administrator. She was part of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service Corps and the Samoan Expeditionary Forces in 1914.

Willis was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1881 to mother Amelia Annie Nicolson and father Alexander James Willis. She attended Johnsonville School, Fitzherbert Terrace School and Wellington Girl's High School. She joined the group on 26 August and embarked the next morning. Once in Cairo, she worked at The New Zealand General Hospital, taking care of soldiers wounded and ill from the Gallipoli Campaign. She was transferred to the No 1 New Zealand General Hospital in Brockenhurst in June 1916 where she worked for a short period.

Willis arrived in France on 30 July 1916 to work at the First New Zealand Stationary Hospital at Amiens, just 15 miles from the front-line. Conditions where noted to have been extremely difficult, a quote from Willis describes: After the First World War, Willis moved back to New Zealand and worked at the Featherston Military Camp. In 1919, Willis was appointed assistant to the matron in chief of the New Zealand Army Nursing Services, Hester Maclean. In 1935, she was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division) in the 1944 New Year Honours, in recognition of her service as matron-in-chief of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service. Willis was noted as the first women in New Zealand to receive an O.B.E.

Personal life Willis retired in February 1946, and lived at Raumati Beach with her sister. She never married and traveled with her family during her 22 year retirement. Ida Willis died on 7 March 1968, she is buried at the Karori Cemetery, Wellington.