Shep's Place Family Tree

Lily played the piano well and accompanied her father Henry, who played the violin. She remembered that as a child, her father would strike her fingers with a ruler when she played the wrong note.

After Lily trained to be a nursing sister, she decided that she wanted to serve in the Australian forces during World War I. Her mother was opposed to her going, but Lily, independent and strong-minded, went. Lily and other South Australian nurses left on the ship Mooltan for field hospitals in May 1915.

It was there in Egypt that Lily met Alexander "Alic" Tait, who had enlisted in the Victorian 10th Light Horse Regminent. Alic had been wounded and hospitalized, which is probably why and where Lily met him.

After Lily and Alic's marriage in Egypt and their return to Australia, they lived in Adelaide, where their first child Douglas was born. Later they moved to Victoria where daughters Florence and Joyce were born. Later the Taits again returned to Adelaide.

After Lily and Alic separated, Lily worked as a district nurse in the Port Adelaide area and in other nursing positions. Later she became matron at Scotch College, Adelaide. Lily also nursed elderly people in their homes, both in Adelaide and Perth.