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Rene Shadbolt

René Shadbolt led the only New Zealand contingent to the Spanish Civil War. She and fellow nurse, Isobel Dodds, cared for wounded soldiers, particularly those from the International Brigades, from July 1937 to November 1938.

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Today in History

9 April

1932 Unemployed disturbances in Dunedin

During the 'angry autumn' of 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, unemployed workers in Dunedin reacted angrily to the refusal of the Hospital Board to offer assistance.

Trouble had first flickered in Dunedin in January, when a crowd of unemployed besieged a grocery store. It resurfaced on 9 April, when protesters stoned the mayor's relief depot and tried to storm the Hospital Board's offices, before being dispersed by police batons.

The Dunedin disturbances were repeated in Christchurch, Wellington and – most dramatically of all – in Auckland's Queen Street on 14 April.

Image: Dunedin Hospital (Genealo)