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A memorial to the women of New South Wales who served in World War 2.
Artist: Dennis Adams
Artwork description
The memorial features a bronze statue of a uniformed servicewoman standing on a sandstone plinth in front of a sandstone wall. To her right is a bronze bas-relief illustrating the fields in which women served in World War 2. It is located in the Jessie Street Park in Loftus Street at Circular Quay.
The memorial is dedicated to the wartime servicewomen of NSW. The various plaques and bas-reliefs on the sandstone wall represent the women who served in the Australian Army Medical Corps, Australian Army Nursing Service, Australian Women’s Army Service, Voluntary Aid Detachments and Australian Army Medical Women’s Service, Royal Australian Air Force Medical Service, Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service, Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force, Royal Australian Naval Nursing Service and Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service.
It is fittingly located in Jessie Street Park, which was to be dedicated to the ‘great women of Australia’.
Artist
Dennis Adams was born in Sydney in 1914 and studied at the Royal Art Society, Sydney and Royal Academy Schools, London. He joined the 18th Battalion and was later seconded to the Department of Home Security for camouflage work on RAAF stations. In 1942 he was appointed war artist before being made Captain in Military History Section AIF in 1943. He went on to serve in New Guinea, Middle East, Italy, Egypt, UK, France, Belgium, Newfoundland, Canada, the Bahamas, US, and Japan.
After 1945 he continued to work as an artist mainly in the area of war and has undertaken numerous other works including the Royal Australian Regiment Memorial in Regimental Square and paintings and sculpture at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. In 1989, he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal.
