Nora Kathleen Fletcher

Nora Kathleen Fletcher (1 February 1880 – 18 August 1976), known in later life as Paula Ian Alexander, was a decorated Australian nurse, who led the British Red Cross nurses in France and Belgium as principal matron during World War I.

Early life Fletcher was born on 1 February 1880 in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra. Her parents were Ann Marian Fletcher née Clarke, an embroiderer who made the velvet bag to hold The Ashes urn, and John Walter Fletcher. Her brother, John Fletcher, became a politician in Queensland. She was educated privately by a governess. When she was 20, she went to train to be a nurse at the St Kilda Hospital in Woolloomooloo. She was appointed as a probationary nurse in the public service in 1902, and graduated as a nurse in 1906 from the Coast Hospital (later known as Prince Henry Hospital) in Little Bay. She soon became the principal matron of all the British Red Cross personnel in France and Belgium hospitals, with up to 400 army sisters under her charge, organising the movement of all women workers who passed through France, Italy, Malta and Egypt.