Bicton Vyner Brooke Tragedy Memorial, W.A.

Details

Location Point Walter Reserve, Honour Avenue, Bicton, Melville - Western Australia, Australia
Type memorial
Description

A bronze plaque on a granite obelisk situated on the banks of a lake.

Built Not yet discovered
Opened 2 May 1999 by Mrs Vivian Statham (nee Bullwinkle) AO MBE ARRC FNM and another POW survivor Mrs Wilma Young (nee Oram) AM
Inscription

Our Nursing Heritage. The Vyner Brooke tragedy.

On 12th February 1942 sixty five Australian Army Nursing Sisters were ordered to leave Singapore in the wake of the advancing Japanese army. They boarded the ship the "Vyner Brooke" along with civilians. Two days later the ship was discovered by Japanese aircraft and bombed. Twelve nurses drowned after the attack. Twenty two nurses, many of them wounded landed on Banka Island. The group was found by Japanese soldiers and forced to walk into the sea and were shot. One nurse named Vivian Bullwinkel although shot, feigned death, and later made her way to shore. She and the remaining thirty one nurses became prisoners of war for three and a half years. A further eight nurses died during this period of captivity. Twenty four nurses returned home. This memorial was officially unveiled on 2 May 1999 by Mrs Vivian Statham (nee Bullwinkle) AO MBE ARRC FNM and another POW survivor Mrs Wilma Young (nee Oram) AM to celebrate the 100th year of Womens Suffrage in Western Australia.

Condition

Good

Names

Showing 8 people of interest from memorial

FAIRWEATHER, Lorna Florence

Service number SX13431
Staff Nurse
2nd/13th Australian General Hospital
Australian Military Forces (Army WW2)
Born 31 Jan 1913

HALLIGAN, Clarice Isobel

Service number VFX47776
Sister
2nd/13th Australian General Hospital
Australian Military Forces (Army WW2)
Born 17 Sep 1904

MCDONALD, Gladys Myrtle

Service number QFX22815
Staff Nurse
2nd/13th Australian General Hospital
Australian Military Forces (Army WW2)
Born 17 Jul 1909

BULLWINKEL (STATHAM), Vivian

Service number VFX61330
Captain
2nd/13th Australian General Hospital
Australian Military Forces (Army WW2)
Born 18 Dec 1915

BRIDGE, Ada Joyce

Service number NFX76284
Lieutenant
2nd/13th Australian General Hospital
Australian Military Forces (Army WW2)
Born 6 Jul 1907

MITTELHEUSER, Pearl Beatrice

Service number QFX19068
Lieutenant
10th Australian General Hospital
AIF WW1
Born 28 Apr 1904

SALMON, Florence Aubin

Service number NX70991
Nursing Sister
2nd/10th Australian General Hospital
Australian Military Forces (Army WW2)
Born 20 Oct 1915

WIGHT, Rosetta Joan

Service number VX61329
Nursing Sister
2nd/13th Australian General Hospital
Australian Military Forces (Army WW2)
Born 3 Dec 1908