Nona Mildred Hildyard
Born	(1888-11-04)4 November 1888
Died	23 October 1915(1915-10-23) (aged 26)
Cause of death	Sinking of SS Marquette
Nationality	New Zealand
Occupation	Nurse

Nona Mildred Hildyard (4 November 1888 – 23 October 1915) was a New Zealand nurse who served in the First World War and died in the sinking of SS Marquette in 1915.^[1][2]

Unidentified group of New Zealand nurses on board SS Maheno, 1915

Early life

Hildyard was born in Lyttelton, near Christchurch, New Zealand, on 4 November 1888, to William and Betsy Ann Hildyard. Her father was a bootmaker and a Lyttelton Borough Councillor. Hildyard attended West Lyttelton School and Lyttelton District High School. She trained as a nurse at Christchurch Hospital.^[1] After her initial training, Hildyard worked for a Christchurch doctor, A.C. Sandston, and later at Nurse Turner's private hospital in Woolston.

First World War

In June 1915, Hildyard was selected for the Royal New Zealand Army Nursing Service. She left Wellington in July on the SS Maheno, travelling with 69 other New Zealand nurses, and arrived in Port Said, Egypt, in August. On 19 October, the hospital unit boarded the SS Marquette in Alexandria, but four days later it was sunk by a torpedo from a German submarine. Hildyard was injured by a falling lifeboat, and although she survived for some hours, she eventually died in the water before a rescue ship arrived.^[1][3] Survivors reported that she sang while in the water, to keep spirits up.^[4]

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