By Dr. Susan J. Neuhaus
When Dr. Mary Thornton emblazoned her military tin helmet with a hand-drawn kangaroo and the personal motto “Keep your tail up,” she couldn’t have known how perfectly those four words would encapsulate not just her wartime experience, but her extraordinary life of service, resilience, and transition.
Denied a commission by her own country’s military, Thornton—like many pioneering Australian women doctors before her—took matters into her own hands. She farewelled her husband, entrusted her teenage son to boarding school, and travelled halfway across the world to serve with the British Army. When finally appointed a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps, she was cautioned: “I don’t know how you will get on, I’m sure. Women in the Corps—the men won’t like it.”
The men, it turned out, would adapt. Thornton certainly did.
Through the horrors of war—this determined Australian radiologist served with distinction. At Surrey, her first military casualties came from Dunkirk, arriving bootless, with ragged clothing and suffering the effects of prolonged immersion compounding their injuries. Later, navigating Blitz-darkened London streets with a respirator and tin hat became routine.
Tested In The Desert
It was in the Middle East where Thornton – now promoted to Major – faced her greatest challenges. Posted to a tented facility near Basra in the desert, she confronted the unique difficulties of practicing military radiology in extreme conditions. Sand infiltrated everything, coating equipment in gritty khaki dust. The excruciating heat threatened to ruin X-ray films—the emulsion would simply slide off without proper cooling. With remarkable ingenuity, Thornton and a neighbouring Scottish engineer regiment developed a cooling system, similar to an Australian Coolgardie safe, to keep the precious equipment functioning. Possessing the only portable X-ray in the region, she travelled between Indian hospitals using improvised “earthing” methods—running wires to pipes driven into sand, with water poured down just before exposures.
Throughout her service, Thornton experienced the profound isolation of being both an Australian in a British unit and the sole woman officer. “I was a poor lone wolf,” she wrote, noting how long English officers took to transition from “period of courteous acquaintance to ‘dinkum cobber.'” These separations were most acute in July 1942 when casualties arrived from the western desert—including the legendary “Rats of Tobruk.” Among them was Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Anderson DSO, Commanding Officer of the 2/32nd Battalion AIF, whose arm had been amputated. Thornton had been his family physician before the war and had delivered two of his children. Despite initial signs of recovery, she would later receive news of his death from wounds.
Yet through personal hardship—including her husband’s death during a brief compassionate leave home—Thornton maintained her resilience and sense of duty. Even when radiation exposure burned three of her fingers and she suffered from “constant weariness,” she chose to return to her unit after recovering. When finally repatriated home, standing astern the hospital transport she commented to a fellow Australian soldier that she “could almost smell the gum leaves.”
From War To Peace Time
Thornton’s post-war transition exemplifies how military experience shaped many women’s subsequent civilian contributions. Returning to Australia, she became a visiting specialist in radiology at the Repatriation General Hospital in Heidelberg, Victoria. She also served as President of the Women’s Returned Service League in Victoria, advocating for proper recognition of women’s wartime service.
After the war, Thornton channelled her experiences into literature, documenting both her personal journey and the broader historical context she had witnessed. In Matilda Waltzes with the Tommies and the fictional The Dust of Ninevah, her astute observations captured the stark contrast between her beloved Australian bush and the ancient landscapes of the Middle East.
Women like Major Mary Thornton didn’t merely serve during conflict—their military service transformed Australian society through their determination to contribute despite institutional barriers. Their stories remind us that transitions—whether from peace to war, rejection to acceptance, or military to civilian life—reveal character and forge legacy.
Today, as women serve in all branches of the Australian Defence Force, we would do well to remember those who ‘kept their tails up’ when doors were closed to them, yet found ways to serve nonetheless. Their stories aren’t merely historical footnotes—they are the foundation upon which contemporary opportunities were built.
Dr. Susan J. Neuhaus is the author of “Not For Glory: A century of service by medical women to the Australian Army and its allies” and “The Surgeon of Royaumont.” A former Colonel in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps, she continues to document the contributions of Australian women in military medicine.