The Australian Army Medical Women’s Service (AAMWS) grew out of the volunteer Red Cross and St John Ambulance Voluntary Aid Detachments (known as the VADs).
From December 1942 nearly 8,500 AAMWS served as nurses, nursing aides, and technicians tending sick and wounded soldiers in the Middle East, New Guinea, and Australia.
The AAMWS served alongside army nursing sisters in hospitals.