Anne Angela Liddy

Anne Liddy was born in Dawson into an Irish Catholic family 'with a genius for going to dry places where they don't make any money' (preliminary interview). In 1904 three generations of the family joined the exodus from the Upper North and became part of the 'second settlement' of Eyre Peninsula, taking up virgin scrub at Yallunda Flat near Tumby Bay. Anne Liddy left the Yalunda Flat School in 1914, the year that the family farm went bankrupt and her father became a railway ganger. Her first job, for six years, was as domestic and mother's helper for the family of the Tumby Bay Bank of Adelaide manager. After returning to help on her family's new share farm venture, she began nursing training at the Tumby Bay Hospital in 1923, recognising this as one of the very limited employment alternatives for local girls. Miss Liddy finished training at the Adelaide Hospital and began her career as a private nurse with the Royal British Nurses' Association in 1927