Phoebe was born on 31.3.1879, the daughter of Frederick Chapple and Elizabeth Chapple nee Hunter.

Parents:

Frederick – Born 12.10.1845 St Pancras, Middlesex – Died 29.2.1924 City of Norwood, South Australia

Parents: John Chapple and Louisa Brewin - Married in 1843

Married on 16.4.1869 Middlesex to

Elizabeth Sarah Hunter – Born 1845 London – Died 19.10.1930 City of Norwood, South Australia

 Parents: Thomas Stephen Hunter and Elizabeth Perrins - Married in 1840

Siblings:

Frederic John - Born 1872 Westminster - Died 23.1.1948 South Australia

(Married in 1902 to Mary Alice Fletcher)

Edith - Born 1873 England - Died 28.3.1937 South Australia

(Married in 1900 to Joseph Auburn Haslam)

Marion - Born April 1874 London - Died 15.10.1930 Gawler, South Australia

(Married on 14.3.1911 to Rowland Broadbent)

Alfred M. B. - Born 10.4.1876 Kent Town, Adelaide - Died 25.12.1956 Cambridgeshire

(Married in 1907 to Hannah Melville Simmonds)

Gertrude – Born 15.1.1878 Kent Town – Died 20.5.1947 City of Norwood

(Married on 1.1.1902 to Frederick Waldeck)

Harold - Born 13.2.1881 Adelaide - Died 8.3.1945 England

(Married on 13.8.1911 to Irene Briscoe Arbuthnot Lane)

Ernest – Born 6.10.1882 City of Norwood – Died 13.3.1940 Adelaide City

(Married to Kathleen Muriel "Kath" Cadell)

Reginald – Born 8.8.1884 Adelaide – Died 6.1.1886 Adelaide City

Schooling: Advanced School for Girls, University of Adelaide (B.Sc., 1898; M.B., B.S., 1904)

Phoebe was a Captain with the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (British Army)

Country of Service United Kingdom. Occupation: Doctor

Military Medal, British War Medal, Victory Medal

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Heroine of the Great War and the first woman doctor to be awarded the Military Medal.

Her father, Frederic Chapple was headmaster at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide and five of her siblings were also high achievers. Phoebe was the youngest of five daughters in the family and had two brothers. She attended the Advanced School for Girls in Grote Street, Adelaide before going on to university at only 16.Here, in 1898, she gained a Bachelor of Science degree which for a woman in those days was unusual. She decided to study medicine and, in only her second year, she was awarded the university's Elder Prize for academic excellence.

Phoebe graduated as a doctor in 1904.In February 1917 she travelled to England where she enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was appointed as Surgeon to Cambridge Hospital in Aldershot, Hampshire. She was subsequently attached to the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps with the honorary rank of captain and was one of the first two women doctors sent to the Western Front. On 29 May 1918,whilst inspecting the QMAAC Camp 1 near Abbeville, it came under an enemy aerial bombing attack during which three bombs fell, one of which exploded on a covered trench used as a shelter killing 9 women and injuring six. She immediately set about tending to those injured despite the danger posed by the risk of a continuing attack.

The Military Medal had been introduced during the Great War and its award to women was considered possible only under exceptional circumstances, on the special recommendation of a Commander-in-Chief in the Field. The citation read "For gallantry and devotion to duty during an enemy air raid. While the raid was in progress Doctor Chapple attended to the needs of the wounded regardless of her own safety." Had she been a male officer, it is likely that the higher decoration of the Military Cross would have been awarded.

Phoebe was the first woman doctor to win the Military Medal. She was also awarded the British War Medal 1914-20 and the Victory Medal. Prior to the war, and afterwards until 1929, she was Honorary Medical Superintendent of McBride's Maternity Hospital. She was a founding member of the South Australian Medical Women's Society and later served as its president and continued to practice from her home, 'Tintagel', in Norwood, until the age of 85 years.

Phoebe passed away on 24.3.1967. At her cremation service, at Centennial Park Cemetery, she was accorded full military honours.

Extensive information of Dr Phoebe Chapple can be found on the Virtual War Memorial site.

Memorials: Adelaide University of Adelaide WW1 Honour Roll, Kent Town Wesleyan Methodist Church WW1 Honour Roll.