The Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) was mobilised again during the Second World War, and many of its 5,000 members served overseas in the Middle East, Mediterranean, Britain, Asia, and the South Pacific. In the AANS, Nurses were commissioned as Lieutenants, Sisters as Captains, and Matrons as Majors, although many were loath to give up their traditional industry titles. They failed to gain the same status and pay as their male counterparts.
Grace Wilson was co-opted on 24th September 1940 as Matron-in-Chief. She also served on the staff of the Director-General of Medical Services. Being past sixty years of age, Grace was discharged from the Army on 30th September 1941. Annie Moriah Sage served in that position from February 1943 to August 1952.
Following the war several AANS nurses were posted to Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force.