The new War Memorial Anglican Church of St. Peter at Ocean Grove was dedicated by Archbishop Woods of Melbourne on 26 November 1960, along with the TocH Chapel adjoining the nave. Two war memorial windows were dedicated by the Rural Dean, the Reverend Gordon Apsley on Remembrance Day, 11 November 1962. Although the inscription on the window was to a single Australian Army nurse, the intention was to pay tribute to all women of the national services who served in World Wars. The initials of the women's war services were noted in the window: AANS, AAMWS, WRAANS, WAAAF, AWA, VAD, ARP and Red Cross, but the wartime work of civilian women was recognisedas wellthrough the words 'Farm and Factory'.
Christina Richards, daughter of Edwards Richards of 218 Ascot Street, Ballarat, was a twenty-eight year old staff nurse, with several months experience at Caulfield Hospital when she embarked on the Orsova in Melbourne on 6 December 1916, bound for England. She was posted to 14 Stationery Hospital at Rouen, France in February 1917 where she remained for the next five months. Postings to various Army General Hospitals in England followed until she returned to Australia as one of the nursing staff on HMAT Runic on 18 February 1918. At some point on this journey or at 3 AGH on her return, she met Lieutenant Alexander Hollyhoke; they married the same year and settled in Geelong. Christina Hollyhoke died in 1960, aged 69.
References & Acknowledgements
AWM: First World War Embarkation Roll; NAA: B2455, Richards Christina; NAA: B2455, Hollyhoke AD Lieutenant; Cheryl Timbury (compiler), St. Peter's Anglican War Memorial Church, Ocean Grove: 100 years of worship 1888-1988, St. Peter's Vestry, 1988; Melton Express, 26 January 1918, p.3.
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