Wearing her original distinctive World War II nursing uniform, her service medals and bright lipstick, Anne Leach has become a familiar and much-loved sight on Anzac Day. So much so that those who regularly attend the parade through the city look out for her and often approach her afterwards for a photo and a chat. And so it is no surprise when a complete stranger wanders up as Mrs Leach is having her photograph taken by The West Australian at the State War Memorial. After hearing that Mrs Leach, 101, served in World War II, Jennie Bayley, visiting from Brisbane, asks if she can take a photo too. “Thank you and congratulations,” Mrs Bayley whispers to her subject and, then turning to others gathered around, says to all: “We owe them a debt of gratitude.” It is a common sentiment. Letitia Anne Sylvie Metzke was born in Meekatharra on June 15, 1914, and when she was 11 her father John moved the family to a farm near Cuballing in the Great Southern. Anne, as she became known, did her general nursing training at Perth Hospital (now Royal Perth Hospital) and then went to the children’s hospital in Subiaco (now Princess Margaret Hospital) as a staff nurse. When war broke out in 1939 she applied to join the Australian Army Nursing Service and in July 1940 was called up to work at a military hospital in Claremont. In 1941 she boarded the Aquitania in Fremantle, headed for service in the Middle East with the 2/7th Australian General Hospital. She served in Palestine, Syria and Egypt, enduring harsh extremes of heat and cold, including the first snow to fall in the Hebron Hills for 40 years, while living in tents with three other nurses. Heavy rain at one stage meant the nurses went to work in gumboots. The hospitals cared for the wounded from battles including El Alamein and the nurses were kept busy with more than 1000 patients at any one time, with the tally reaching 1527 in August 1941. In Palestine she met Vernon Leach, who was serving in the 2/16th Battalion, and they married back in Perth in 1943, when Capt. (later Major) Leach was on leave. After a brief honeymoon, Capt. Leach was posted to New Guinea and Mrs Leach took up a post at 110 Australian General Hospital, where she remained until the end of the war, retiring with the rank of captain. Mr Leach was appointed as magistrate to the Gascoyne in 1943, and the couple had two sons and two daughters. Mr Leach tragically drowned while fishing north of Carnarvon in 1956 and Mrs Leach and her four young children returned to Perth. Mrs Leach not only returned to nursing as a volunteer, she also threw herself into numerous administrative roles during long associations with the Red Cross, Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Returned and Services League. In 1983 she was awarded the coveted Florence Nightingale Medal by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and received an Order of Australia in 1994. Mrs Leach remembers her days nursing in the Middle East as hard work but recalls with great fondness “our boys”. “They were marvellous, our boys,” she said. “Their caring for each other was pretty good and they practically worshipped us I think. “We looked after them pretty well.” Today she intends to proudly take her place in the Anzac Day parade again. It is, she says, a time she catches up with friends but, more than anything, it is a day to remember the boys. “I would not like Anzac Day to go by without remembering,” she said. And she will proudly pin her medals to the uniform. “I do feel proud,” she said. “I wouldn’t let an Anzac Day pass without wearing them.” Source
