Alice Chisholm
Dame Alice Isabel Chisholm, known familiarly as "Mother Chisholm", was an Australian woman who provided canteen services for soldiers in Egypt and Palestine during World War I.
Early life
She was born at Reevesdale near Goulburn, New South Wales to Major Richard John Morphy, pastoralist of Grena Mummell, Goulburn, and his wife Mary Emma. She was raised by her maternal grandparents, after her mother died of measles, because her father was away serving in the Indian Army. She was educated at home. In 1877, she married pastoralist William Alexander Chisholm, a widower ; the couple had five children ; two of whom predeceased their mother.First World War
During the First World War her son Bertram was wounded at Gallipoli. She travelled to Egypt to be closer to him; when she arrived she noticed the lack of facilities for the troops and established a canteen in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis largely at her own expense.She opened a second canteen in Egypt at Port Said, and a third in Kantara for troops fighting near the Suez Canal with two other Australasian women. The Kantara canteen expanded to include dormitories and dining rooms and eventually had the capacity to handle thousands of men. Profits from the canteens were used to provide the troops with comforts for their journey home.