Brisbane snubs unsung war heroine Matron Grace Wilson Matron Grace Wilson doing her rounds at Lemnos. ONE of Australia's greatest war heroines has been ignored by her home city. Brisbane-born Matron Grace Wilson ran a field hospital caring for thousands of badly wounded and sick soldiers shipped from the frontline at Gallipoli in World War I In extreme weather, without the most basic equipment or essential medical supplies and fighting dysentery and typhoid as well as the misogyny and incompetence of military superiors, the courage, stoicism and compassion of Matron Wilson and her team of nurses ensured that 98 per cent of their patients survived. Read the full story of Grace Wilson in The Sunday Mail print edition's Agenda section She was later awarded nursing's highest honour, the Florence Nightingale Medal, the Royal Red Cross, was made a Commander of the British Empire and was the first woman to receive life membership of the Returned Serviceman's League. A memorial is being erected on the Greek island of Lemnos, where Matron Wilson ran the "hospital from hell" for seven months. But in Brisbane, where she grew up and began her nursing career, there is no permanent tribute to her incredible contribution to the Anzac spirit. Matron Grace Wilson during World War I. Author Susanna de Vries says it is time to change that. "These dedicated nurses returned home to receive a minute pension in a land where only men were heroes," says Ms de Vries, who features Matron Wilson in her new book, published this month, Australian Heroines of World War One. The book was funded by Dame Elisabeth Murdoch in one of her last acts of philanthropy before her death. Matron Wilson encountered the same blundering by military top brass that Dame Elisabeth's husband, war correspondent Sir Keith, exposed in his famous letter from Gallipoli. "Every Australian knows the name John Kirkpatrick Simpson, the tavern brawler who jumped ship and redeemed himself by taking men wounded half-way up the cliffs at Gallipoli by donkey for three-and-a-half weeks until he was killed," Ms de Vries says. But in Brisbane, her home town, we do not have even a tiny plaque to Grace Wilson. De Vries is now lobbying Queensland Governor Penelope Wensley and Lord Mayor Graham Quirk for support in getting a fitting tribute to the state's forgotten heroine. "They could even put a plaque in King George Square under the image of a nurse with a wounded soldier - but for God's sake do something and soon," the Brisbane writer said. Cr Quirk said he had not yet received Ms de Vries' letter but was interested in feedback on the proposal. "I'll get in contact with the RSL . . . who I understand honoured Matron Grace Wilson as their first female life member, to get their feedback on a permanent acknowledgment in our city," he said. Last year I named one of Legacy Way's tunnel boring machines after former World War II nurse Joyce Tweddell in recognition of the outstanding work of Brisbane's war nurses. A spokeswoman for the Governor said: "Any request is always carefully considered."