Far, far away from home, the lonely grave of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) World War I heroine Ettie Annie Rout is no longer forgotten.

The distinctive haunting sound of bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace” hummed through the graveyard of the Avarua CICC cemetery to mark the poignant and solemn memorial ceremony for Rout – World War I safer-sex campaigner and a “Guardian Angel of the Anzacs”.

Special keynote speaker representing the New Zealand Remembrance Army, Sergeant Suzanne (Su) Gingles flew into Rarotonga especially for the occasion an hour before the ceremony on Saturday afternoon.

 “I felt very privileged and honoured,” said Sgt Gingles, who joined the New Zealand Army in 1977.

“I thought it was amazing and it’s great the New Zealand Defence Force acknowledged her when France had already acknowledged her, and I felt quite emotional because I thought in a way, we have some similarities…”

Rout who was one of New Zealand’s earliest sexual health campaigners is “one of the most remarkable New Zealand women of the 20^th century, said Sgt Gingles in her moving tribute address.

The New Zealand Remembrance Army ‘plaque of gratitude’ for Ettie A Rout, dubbed the “Guardian Angel of the ANZAC’s”. MELINA ETCHES. 23042314

H.G. (Herbert George) Wells, who was an English writer, called Rout “that unforgettable heroine”. And a French venereal disease specialist dubbed her the “Guardian Angel of the ANZAC’s”. She was awarded the Reconnaissance française medal (Medal of French Gratitude) in 1919, and mentioned in Dispatches in 1917.

In her address, Sergeant Gingles gave thanks to her friend Annie Caffery Petaia for reminding her that Rout lies in her final resting place of Rarotonga, “far from the cities where she had spent most of her life – Wellington, Christchurch and London”.

In the late 1970s, Sgt Gingles had the privilege of meeting New Zealand World War I veterans who remembered Rout and her welfare work on sexual health in wartime France “with the deepest affection”.

“They so respected her memory that when she died alone and forlorn in a hotel at Avarua in 1936 some of the old soldiers passed a hat around and paid for a proper grave and headstone.”

Rout was a journalist and socialist who arrived in Egypt in February, 1916 as the head of a group of female volunteers she had established called the “New Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood”.

“She immediately became aware of the Kiwi soldiers’ high venereal disease rate, an outcome of Cairo’s troop-crowded red-light district.

“She saw this as a medical not a moral problem; one which should be approached like any other disease – with all preventative measures.”

When the bulk of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) left for France that April (in 1916), Rout remained in Egypt to care for the men fighting the desert campaign in Sinai and Palestine.

But by June 1917, having realised the venereal disease problem was still very bad and that the New Zealand Medical Corps had not adopted effective measures, Rout went to London to badger it into doing so, noted Sgt Gingles.

Researching amongst the foremost doctors in this new field, Rout combined the work of several to produce her own prophylactic (preventative) kit or “pro-kit” issued to soldiers containing calomel ointment, condoms and Condy’s crystals (potassium permanganate) – a strong oxidising agent which also works as an antiseptic.

At the end of 1917, the NZEF adopted Rout’s kit for free and compulsory distribution to soldiers going on leave.

Rout received no acknowledgement for her role in the kit’s development and adoption, “and for the duration of the war the Cabinet banned her name and activities from New Zealand newspapers under the War regulations”.

In Paris, having transformed “Madame Yvonne’s” into a safer sex brothel which had regular medical inspections, Rout met soldiers at the railway station and convinced them to go there – if they chose to have sex.

“Armed with a wicked sense of humour, an intolerance of hypocrisy and boundless energy, Ettie proved the case for safer sex decades before the term was coined – and the troops loved her for it.”

After the war Rout settled in London where she married her long-time friend and wartime colleague, physical culturist Fred Hornibrook.

Sergeant Gingles met legendary Australian journalist Chris O’Sullivan in Wellington around 1979 who had gotten to know Rout and her husband in London.

“He thought Ettie was wonderful, and later in life was going to write a biography of her but instead gave his material to New Zealand writer Jane Tolerton (1992 biography ‘Ettie’) who had been researching Ettie for some years and who ended up writing a very fine book,” Sergeant Gingles said.

“Ettie wrote a number of books herself, many of which underlines how far ahead of her time she was.

“But, she was widely viewed as an eccentric.

“She did not fit in to prim and proper – and hypocritical – mainstream society.”

Once Rout’s marriage was over, in 1936, she returned to New Zealand where she was “rebuffed” by her former friends.

John A. Lee, a New Zealand politician and writer, a soldier in France who had met Rout told Sgt Gingles that he remembered her (Ettie) visiting Parliament and calling on some of her old contacts but he had been unable to leave a meeting to see her.

“By the time he came out she was gone – and he would never see her again,” said Sgt Gingles.

“Ettie had sailed for Rarotonga and died there … of a self-administered overdose of quinine.

Teresa Cousins, a former serviceman for the New Zealand Army, is part of the 400-contingent from Aotearoa New Zealand who have arrived here for the ANZAC Dawn Parade early tomorrow, attended the ceremony.

“It’s been fabulous to be a part of this,” said Cousins who noted that the New Zealand Remembrance Army wanted to pay tribute to Rout, a woman who was “well ahead of her time” for the role she played in the wartime effort.

Sergeant Gingles had the honour of unveiling the “plaque of gratitude” and the laying of the first wreath on Rout’s grave.

Wreaths were laid by: The King’s Representative Sir Tom Marsters, Member of Parliament Agnes Armstrong on behalf of the Cook Islands Government, Aotearoa New Zealand High Commissioner Tui Dewes, Australian High Commissioner Phoebe Smith, French Honorary Consul Patricia Barton, Cook Islands Returned Services Association (RSA) patron Makea Karika George Ariki, The Cook Islands RSA president Tom Annas, Cook Islands Women rep Nga Teao-Papatua, Ombudsman Nikki Rattle, Cook Islands WW1 NZEF Research Project Team – Cate Walker, Paul Morrissey and Paula Paniani – and representing the Aras Tunellers, Sue Baker Wilson QSM.

The master of ceremony was Sam Puati Samuel, the bagpipes were played by Andrew Orange, The Last Post by Phillip Strickland, The Ode (Maori) by Pira Wichman and The Ode (English) by “Onward Bar” members representative Gary Brandon.