Women in Service: Bernadette Boss really is a Boss

Which helps explain why she enlisted in the British Army and how she ended up in the Royal Australian Army.

As a Brigadier, by the time she retired.

A Brigadier who will be in Echuca-Moama on Tuesday next week as a guest speaker at the Moama RSL Sub-Branch’s inaugural Women in Service commemoration, followed by a lunch where participants will hear of adversity turned into opportunity, of her own service in East Timor, from INTERFET to UNTAET, of her appointment as national commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention, of her time in the legal system as a circle sentencing magistrate and of her 30-plus years having to excel to be such a successful woman in a man’s world.

It is, at its core, a remarkable story of determination, a story which began with an 11-year-old dyslexic struggling through school in a time when awareness, let alone support, for conditions such as hers, were rarely, if ever, heard of.

So accepting her lot in life, Bernadette targeted a career in nursing, where the emphasis was hands-on training, in the wards, in casualty and definitely not in the classroom.

And, as is so often referred to in the classics, the rest was history.

A history founded in the service of others and contributing to a better world, and a history inspired by generations of military forebears.

As the great-granddaughter and granddaughter of regular soldiers, including a grandfather who served in both the Boer War and World War I, and from her own experiences as a military spouse and former serving member, Bernadette circa 2020s is committed to serving those who have served.

It might come across even as a glamorous career path but make no mistake, Bernadette is direct and, if necessary, brutally abrupt in her opinion when asked the tough questions.

Such as is she, and very many other women like her, in the Australian Defence Forces, walking on the shoulders of those who went before?

“No, I don’t think so. The army, the ADF, are constantly changing, evolving, and the roles of women in the military moved with them,” Bernadette says.

“Look at 1985, forget the military for the moment, and tell me how many women you saw in charge of anything,” she says.

“There’s no question, the first women, who paved a way into all three wings of the armed forces, faced a much tougher reception than we do today, but in 1985 did we have a woman Prime Minister, a woman in charge of a police force, a state government, there were only a few who became Ministers, state or federal. And I can’t recall many, even any, who ran the major corporations.

“But today we have all that.

“No, I still think the biggest impediment for women being more than secretaries in uniform, nurses or in administration was no government, and not even the top brass, thought Australia could cope with women coming home in body bags.

“Instead women in the military who so much as married were basically out, their first duty was to their husbands and families. The times were changing, but slowly, serving women of my generation still had to prove they could do the job regardless of experience or qualifications – because you were a woman.”

Meanwhile, back in the UK, having almost accidentally found her future by default, the Registered Nurse, training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London before completing an Ophthalmic Nursing Diploma at Moorfields Eye Hospital, joined the British Territorial Army and was commissioned into Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps.

Success in nursing studies encouraged her to apply for university where she studied anthropology at University College London and now, way beyond those early days of dyslexia diminishing her academic potential, she also became interested in law and attended the Inns of Court School of Law, being called to the bar of England and Wales as a barrister of the Middle Temple. And while still at university she transferred to Royal Signals.

But it was a holiday to Australia which changed everything, Bernadette “fell in love with the country”, emigrated and became an Australian citizen and transferred to the Australian Army Reserve, and then the regular army as a legal officer.

During this time Bernadette completed a basic parachute course and deployed to East Timor during INTERFET (the multinational non-UN peacemaking task force, organised and led by Australia to address the humanitarian and security crisis there from 1999–2000 until the arrival of UN peacekeepers. It was commanded by Major General Sir Peter Cosgrove) and UNTAET (established by the UN in October 1999 to administer the Territory, exercise legislative and executive authority during the transition period and support capacity-building for self-government. East Timor became an independent country on May 20, 2002).

Having completed her short service commission, Bernadette returned to the private bar and the Army Reserve role as a signals officer, all the while rising through the ranks and becoming, along the way, the first female commanding officer of Sydney University Regiment.

She would be deployed again — this time to Iraq and Afghanistan — and also attended the prestigious Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies.

Bernadette would end her military career at the rank of Brigadier as Adjutant General of the Army and would be awarded a Conspicuous Service Cross in 2007 for her work as Commanding Officer Sydney University Regiment.

But the role in which she takes the greatest pride — even though the problem will remain ongoing – was her 2020 appointment as interim National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention.

It was a position that helped provide the foundation for the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention.

“In the end the importance of the work, its relevance to past and serving men and women got a bit lost in the politics of it all but my work with the Department of Veteran Affairs and some more consultancy work has shown me, and hopefully shown the country, just how tragic and large scale this crisis is in the military,” Bernadette explains.

“Amongst enlisted men the suicide rate is 38 per cent above the national average but for women it is 107 per cent,” she says.

“Those figures can skew the overall reality, but do not lessen just how grim the message is.

“The bronzed Aussie myth, charging the beaches at Gallipoli, the Kokoda, they don’t correlate to women in the service — but unfortunately the psychological burdens do, the guilt of leaving your children to deploy, of your family and those traditional roles. The perceptions and the opportunities might have shifted, it doesn’t mean for individuals the realities have moved as fast.”

But perhaps the cloistered world of academia was able to innocently put Bernadette’s incredible career best into context: as a result of her work as National Commissioner and her strong academic background (she holds a BSc (Hons) University of London: Master of Public Policy, University of New England: Master of International Law, University of Sydney: PhD, University of Sydney: Graduate Certificate in Strategic Studies, Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies) Bernadette was appointed an Adjunct Professor, University of New England, School of Law School.

As a result, she is entitled to be known as Professor Boss.