The 8th Division Australian Army nurses of the 2/10 AGH, 2/13 AGH and 2/4th Casualty Clearing Station were stationed in Malaya. As the Japanese proceeded with great speed down the Malayan Peninsula the nurses were ordered to transfer to Singapore. They were working at St Patrick’s School and the ACS Oldham Hall School until they were to be evacuated.
On the 10th of February 6 members of the AANS were sent on the WAH SUI with wounded soldiers bound for Australia. It was decided that all the nurses should be evacuated from Singapore because of what had happened in Hong Kong. The nurses were asked for volunteers to leave on the first ship available. No one volunteered to leave so Matron Paschke and Matron Drummond decided who would leave Singapore first. Fifty-nine nurses were selected to leave first on the EMPIRE STAR and later on the 12th of February the SS VYNER BROOKE would be one of the last ships to leave Singapore. Those on the Empire Star were bombed but they made it back to Australia even though fourteen people on the ship were killed. The nurses flung themselves over the passengers to shield them from the bombing. The nurses received the George Cross for their bravery. The SS VYNER BROOKE had a very different story filled with tragedy.
For the 65 nurses on SS VYNER BROOKE there was still much work to be done on the way home. They helped with the food that was on board as most people didn’t think to carry food with them.
Sister Clarice Halligan had written home to her sister in Melbourne, “Thank you very much for the parcel. I was glad to get it. We are carefully packing all tinned foods in the bottom of our kit bags in case we are in for a siege which is quite likely, however we are ready what may come, we can make it and a bit more, as long as we keep the Japs out of Australia anything that may happenhere is worthwhile.” Clarice would be one of twenty-one nurses massacred on Banka Island.
The ship travelled during the night and kept close to the shoreline hoping not to be detected. This worked for a while but on the 14th of May their luck would run out. The ship was bombed and machine guns strafed those who were in the water or in lifeboats. The nurses assisted the passengers to abandon the ship prior to leaving the ship themselves with some emergency supplies of medicines and bandages in their pockets. Twelve nurses were lost either at the time of the bombing, in the water or floating off and away from land.
Up to 100 boats were lost in the bombing of the ships in the Banka Strait and up to 5000 people were lost.
A group of 22 Australian Nurses washed up on Radji Beach near Muntok in Indonesia. Matron Drummond suggested that a bonfire should be lit to act as a beacon for those who were still at sea. About 60 men also washed up on the beach. The nurses cared for those who were injured with what little they had. Eventually it was decided that a party of men should walk into the town and alert the Japanese that the women and injured had remained on the beach. Matron Drummond also suggested that the civilian women and children should begin the long walk into town. This single act saved so many lives. The women and children passed the Japanese who would ultimately go to Radji Beach.
When the Japanese soldiers arrived at Radji Beach they ordered the men around the bluff in two groups where they were shot and bayonetted to death. Once they had finished dealing with the men they returned to the women wiping their bloodied bayonets. What happened next was shocking. The nurses were allegedly raped and then they were lined up and urged to walk into the sea. A machine gun began to fire upon them. Matron Drummond said to her nurses, ‘Chin up girls….. I am proud of you….I love you all.” She was brutally shot as were all of the nurses. All but one of the nurses died. Vivian Bullwinkel who was taller than average was shot just above the hip but no vital organs were hit. She feigned death in the water and was gradually washed back to the shore. She could no see sign of life in any of the nurses who were washed up on the beach. The Japanese had left the beach. Vivian crept into the jungle behind the beach and hid. She slept for about 24 hours. A voice from within the jungle called to her. It was Private Kinsley, a British soldier who had been badly injured. Vivian, who had been shot, managed to look after him. She walked to a nearby village to ask for assistance but the men of the village offered none because they we afraid of reprisals from the Japanese. As she began to return to the jungle, the women called to her and they left her some food. She and Private Kinsley lived in the jungle for 12 days. Vivian decided that they should give themselves up. Private Kinsley begged for one day more of freedom. When asked why he told Vivian that it was his birthday and that he wanted to be free one last time. They waited.
The next day they set off into Muntok and were met by a passing car of a Japanese officer. They were treated kindly and were taken into camp.
Meanwhile 31 more of the Australian Nurses had come ashore all along Banka Island. They were initially held in the Customs House and moved a few doors up to the picture theatre. After a few days they were moved to the Coolie Lines and the men went to the Muntok Gaol next door. Betty Jeffrey and Iole Harper would take three days to reach land having swum into the mangrove swamps. Eventually all the nurses would be together. Thirty-two of the sixty-five had survived. Vivian retold her story but the nurses agreed to never speak of it again until they were at home. Private Kinsley died a few days after he was imprisoned.
Most of the nurses had discarded their shoes as they left the ship so they bound the feet in rags or found shoes and used them and some made trompers- wooden scuffs.
The nurses would soon be moved to Palembang in Sumatra. They would be taken in a dirty coal carrying ship out to sea and then up the Musi River to Palembang. The nurses would briefly be settled into a camp at Bukit Besar which was inhabited by various soldiers as well as civilian men and women.
The nurses were then sent to a camp which was referred to as Irenelaan. The men’s camp was the Palembang Gaol. Behind the women’s camp the men were building a new camp in which to be housed. The women’s houses were hopelessly cramped with little space within for the women housed there. The women had few items and two of the nurses had found a used toothbrush which they shared throughout the war. There was little firewood to burn to do the cooking. There were no medications to use as the women became ill. A used tin would become a valuable item for the women. Life was monotonous for them but they soon developed ways of improving their lot. Margaret Dryburgh , a missionary from England and Norah Chambers would start the vocal orchestra.There were lectures given to the women on a variety of subjects. The food was cooked by groups of women. The amount of food was limited. The rice was dirty, the vegetables were left by the Japanese in the sun to rot and there were small amounts of meat left for the women. The women had to clean the latrines with coconut shells or similar. During the rainy season this task was made even worse.
As Christmas Eve 1942 approached the women saw the men passing by to go to work. The woman began to sing Silent Night and Oh Come All Ye Faithful to them as they passed by. The following day the men would return this favour. It was the closest that they would get to be with each other.
The women lost condition as each day passed. During their time in Palembang they could go to the Charitas Hospital for some extra treatment. During these visits to the hospital some of the women could meet with the men from the men’s camp to discover how the men were doing. Sr Mavis Hannah was caught by the Japanese with messages in a sanitary pad to be relayed to wives in the women’s camp. She was left to stand in the sun for hours as punishment. The nuns from Charitas were also imprisoned by the Japanese becauses they appeared to be on the side of the prisoners. They hid medicines in their robes which would give some hope to those who were ill. They too joined the camp.
The women moved once again, this time to the men’s camp Palembang. The men had left the camp but before they left they had trashed much of the camp. They didn’t know that the women would be taken there. Some of the women would die in Palembang
Eventually the women’s camp was moved back to Muntok. They were taken by boat. The camp was very primitive. The women were deteriorating and so many died. Disease was rampant in Muntok. There was malaria, Dengue fever, Banka Fever alongside malnutrition, beri-beri and dysentery. The nurses took care of the sick as well as doing their other tasks but gradually they were becoming sick too. Four nurses would die in the camp in Muntok during 1945. This was terrible for the nurses to endure but they needed to carry on as best they could. They had very little access to medication. The amounts that were left would have almost been useless.
By April 1945 the internees were to be moved again. This time they were taken in two groups back to Sumatra. Women were dying and so many did not make it to their final destination. They were taken on a ship to Palmembang. Conditions were appalling. They arrived late at night and were loaded into the cattle carriages of a train. These airless carriages were cramped and the women spent the night in them. The following day the travelled the many hours to Loebok Lingau. So many people did not live to reach their destination.
Sr Betty Jeffrey described their journey as dreadful. Everyone was weakened.
The camp was in an abandoned rubber plantation. High on a hill. There was a creek running through the two halves of the women’s camp. The accommodation was in a dirty rat-infested state. The creek soon became contaminated. The health of the inhabitants deteriorated significantly due to the small amount of food and illness leading to high death rates.
The nurses were weakened due to lack of food and the constant threat of disease. Despite this they managed to offer some succour to those in the camp. They could bathe the patients and give them a drink or perhaps assist them to eat a small amount of rice. They had nothing but care and compassion to offer and some words of encouragement.
It is thought that approximately 89 women died in the camp at Belalau. Another four nurses would die at this camp. One died after the war had finished.
The end of the war came but the nurses did not know that it had ended. They wouldn’t know until Captain Seki Kazuo addressed the women. On the 24th of August he climbed onto a table and announced that the war was over and that we could now be friends. He never said who the victors of the war were.
The Japanese would throw open the doors of the store room which held Red Cross packages with food and medicine in them. The nurses had suffered the deprivation of these items as had everyone in the camp. Undoubtedly the death rate could have been less significant.
Because the camp was well hidden amongst the trees in a place where the allies hadn’t been able to find the nurses. Finally, Gideon Jacob had flown over the camp and saw fabric moving amongst the trees. Major Tebbutt who had been on the SS VYNER BROOKE with the nurses had insisted that they must be somewhere in Sumatra. Indeed they were.
Food was parachuted into the camps. The nurses enjoyed Vegemite on bread!
Still wearing their uniforms.
On the 24th of September Matron Annie Sage and Sister Floyd , one of the nurses who had belonged to the 2/10th and was evacuated on the EMPIRE STAR, and Sister Chandler arrived by plane to collect the nurses. Matron Sage had taken sixty-five lipsticks for the nurses. When she arrived she saw the small number of nurses and she asked of the nurses, “where are you all?” She realised that this was all that was left of the 65 nurses. She declared that she was the mother of them all. A profound moment. Only 24 nurses had survived the war.
They left for Singapore by plane with Sister Chandler. The nurses arrived and were taken to St Patricks Hospital – the place where so many of them had been before they left Singapore. They gradually gained weight but the soft beds were too much for some of them who slept on the hard floor. They were befriended by Lady Edwina Mountbatten who had a keen interest in their story and wellbeing. She would visit the Nurses Memorial Centre in Melbourne when she visited the nurses in Australia.
The nurses travelled home on the AHS Manunda and arrived in Freemantle, Western Australia on the 23rd of October. The nurses would finally be home on Australian soil.
The nurses had a special bond. They would talk to each other often and would meet up often. They would speak of what had happened to them and how they had survived to each other but they didn’t talk of their ordeal to others. Many returned to nursing and others married. Others were never well enough to go back to nursing. Vivian Bullwinkel went to the War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo.
She was a notable nurse who returned home. She had a full career. She worked at the Repatriation Hospital in Melbourne and she resigned her post as Lieutenant in 1947 and later became the Matron of Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital. She was the president of the Victorian College of Nursing (precursor of the Australian College of Nursing).
She was a decorated nurse who was awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal 2nd class, the Florence Nightingale Medal, an MBE and an AO.
She contacted and kept in touch with all of the families of the nurses who were massacred on Banka Island writing to them all at Christmas and special occasions when she knew that it would have been tough for them.
She was a most revered nurse who will this year have a statue unveiled at the Australian War Memorial in not only her honour but for all the nurses who were lost on Banka Island.
This is an Australian story, a story of women, a story of war, and it is a story that we must never forget.
Lest we forget.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
WHITE COOLIES by Betty Jeffrey
J.P.L Kickhefer – Illustrations from White Coolies
The Muntok Peace Museum- muntokpeacemuseum.org
Australian War Museum – www.awm.gov.au
National Archives of Australia – www.naa.gov.au
The Australian Nurses Memorial Centre, Melbourne – admin@nmc.org.au
Appendix 1
AUSTRALIAN NURSES KILLED AT THE TIME OF BOMBING OF SS VYNER BROOKE OR SHORTLY AFTER:
Matron Olive Paschke – Victoria, aged 37
Kathleen Kinsella – Victoria, aged 37
Louvima Bates – Western Australia, aged 32
Ellenour Calnan – Queensland, aged 29
Mary Clarke -NSW, aged 30
Millicent Dorsch -South Australia, aged 29
Caroline Ennis –Victoria, aged 28
Gladys McDonald – Queensland, aged 32
Lavinia Russell – NSW, aged 32
Marjory Schuman – NSW, aged 31
Merle Trennery -South Australia, aged 32
Mona Wilton – Victoria, aged 28
AUSTRALIAN NURSES MASSACRED ON RADJI BEACH, BANKA ISLAND
Matron Irene Drummond – South Australia, 36
Alma Beard – Western Australia, aged 29
Elaine Balfour-Ogilvy – South Australia, aged 30
Joyce Bridge – NSW, aged 34
Florence Casson – South Australia, aged 38
Mary (Beth) Cuthbertson – Victoria, aged 31
Dorothy (Bud) Elmes – NSW, aged 28
Lorna Fairweather – South Australia, aged 29
Peggy Farmaner – Western Australia, aged 28
Clarice Halligan – Victoria, aged 37
Nancy Harris – NSW, aged 31
Minnie Hodgson- Western Australia, aged 33
Ellen (Nell) Keats – South Australia, aged 26
Janet Kerr – NSW – aged 31
Eleanor McGlade – NSW, aged 38
Kathleen Neuss – NSW, aged 30
Florence Salmon – NSW, aged 26
Esther Jean Stewart – NSW, aged 37
Mona Tait – NSW, aged 27
Rosetta Wight – Victoria, aged 33
Bessie Wilmott – Western Australia, aged 28
AUSTRALIAN NURSES WHO DIED IN MUNTOK, BANKA ISLAND
Wilhelmina Raymont – Tasmania, aged 33
Irene ‘Rene’ Singleton – Victoria, aged 36
Pauline Blanche Hempstead – Queensland, aged 36
Dora Shirley Gardam – Tasmania, aged 34
AUSTRALIAN NURSES WHO DIED IN BELALAU, SUMATRA
Gladys Hughes – Victoria, aged 36
Winnie May Davis – NSW, aged 30
Pearl Mittleheuser – Queensland, aged 41 (died 18/08/1945)
NURSES WHO RETURNED HOME TO AUSTRALIA
Vivian Bullwinkel
Betty Jeffrey
Nesta James
Carrie (Jean) Ashton
Kathleen (Pat) Blake
Jessie Blanch
Veronica Clancy
Cecilia Delforce
Jess Doyle
Jean (Jenny) Greer
Janet (Pat) Gunther
Ellen (Mavis) Hannah
Iole Harper
Violet McElna
Sylvia Muir
Wilma Young
Christian Oxley
Eileen Short
Jessie Simon
Valerie Smith
Ada Syer
Florence Trotter
Joyce Tweddell
Beryl Woodbridge
Appendix 2
NURSING AND MEDICAL STAFF IN SUMATRAN PRISON CAMPS, NOT INCLUDING AUSTRALIAN ARMY NURSES
Edith Florence Bedell, Nurse *
Frank Bell, Nursing orderly (Padang Men’s Camp)
Catherine Boudville, Singapore General Hospital (Padang Camp)
Phyllis Briggs, Nurse *
Rachel Brooks, Nurse
Edith Castle, Colonial Nursing Sister *
Mary Charman, QA Nursing Sister (Padang and Bankinang Camps )
Harley Clark, Dentist (Men’s Camp)
Marjorie Hindaugh Cocke, St John’s Ambulance Volunteer *
Marjorie Cooke, Nurse *
Mary Cooper, QA Nursing Sister*
Jessie Coupland, Nurse, Malayan Nursing Service *
Elsie Crowe, Gynaecologist (Padang internee)
Naomi Davies, QA Nursing Sister, (Padang Camp)
Joy Dexter, Health visitor, Women and Children’s clinic *
Ruth Dickson, QA Nursing Sister *
M. Dlish, Nurse *
Ethel Eveling, 12th Indian General Hospital, (Padang and Bankinang Camps)
Heather Fisher, Australian Nurse, Malayan Nursing Service, (Padang Camp)
Phyllis Fonseca, Combined Singapore General Hospital (Padang and Bankinang Camps)
Dr Annamaria Goldberg-Curth ?neurologist *
Louisa Harley, QA Nursing Sister (Padang Camp)
Hilda Hobbs, Nurse (Padang Camp)
Kathleen Homer, Nurse *
Mary Jenkin, Medical Auxiliary Service *
Kathleen Jenkins, QA Nursing Sister (Padang Camp)
Marjorie Jennings, Nurse *
K.E. Kong, Nurse *
Beatrice Lazar, Indian General Hospital, Singapore, (Padang and Bankinang Camps )
Dr Lentze (former director Pangkalpinang Hospital) (Men’s Camp)
Doreen Lewis, Indian General Hospital, Singapore, (Padang and Bankinang Camps
Marjorie Lyon, Doctor (Padang Camp)
Janet Macalister, Nurse *
Brenda Macduff, Nurse (Padang Camp)
Helen Mackenzie, Nurse *
Freda Mackinnon, Assistant Matron, Penang General Hospital
Lydia Maclean, QA Nursing Service (Padang Camp)
Marjory Malmanche, Nurse (Padang Camp)
Mary McCallum, Nurse *
Jean McDowell, Doctor *
Rennie McFie, Nurse *
Albert McKern Doctor (Men’s Camp )
Nell McMillan, Nurse (Padang and Bankinang Camps)
Laura Mepham, Nurse (Padang Camp)
Olga Neubronner, Colonial Service Nursing Sister, St John’s Ambulance, Singapore *
Sally Oldham, Nurse *
Joan Powell, Nurse*
Violet Pulford, Nurse *
Alice Rossie, Nurse *
Ruth Russell Roberts, MAS Ambulance driver *
Hyda Scott-Eames, MAS Nurse *
Agnes Service, Nurse (Padang Camp)
Constance Smith, Doctor, Women and Children’s welfare officer *
Jean Smith, Nurse (Padang Camp)
Netta Smith, Nurse *
Violet Spedding, QA Matron (Padang and Bankinang Camps )
Hugh Stubbs, Doctor (Men’s Camp )
Dr Tay (Men’s Camp)
C.P. (Phyllis) Thane, VAD Nurse *
Margaret Thompson, Doctor *
Margot Turner, QA Nursing Sister *
Mabel Waugh, Matron, Kuala Lipis, (Padang Camp)
George West, Doctor (Men’s Camp )
Kathleen Woodman, QA Nursing Sister (Padang and Bankinang Camps )
Also 40 Catholic Nuns and a large number of Catholic brothers who cared for dysentery patients in the Men’s camp (11 brothers died doing this work)
* Denotes those British medical /nursing personnel who were in camp with the Australian Nurses 1942-1945
RFHG 