Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Daughter of William Melville CUTHBERTSON, & Lilian Beatrice (nee HOOPER) CUTHBERTSON, of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

per AWM:

 VFX38746 Sister (Sr) Mary Elizabeth (Beth) Cuthbertson, 2nd/20th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). Sr Cuthbertson, along with 64 other Australian nurses and over 250 civilian men, women and children, were evacuated from Singapore, three days before the fall of Malaya, onboard the SS Vyner Brooke. On 14 February 1942 the SS Vyner Brooke was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sunk in Banka Strait. Twelve Australian nurses were killed and 31 of the nurses who survived the sinking were captured as Prisoners of War (POWs), eight of whom later died during captivity. The remaining 22 nurses, including Sr Cuthbertson, aged 32, were washed ashore on Radji Beach, Banka Island, where they, along with 25 British soldiers, surrendered to the Japanese. On 16 February 1942 the Japanese bayoneted the soldiers and ordered the nurses to march into the sea where they were shot. The only survivors of the massacre were Sr Vivian Bullwinkel and a British soldier. Both were taken POW, but only Sr Bullwinkel survived the war. Sr Cuthbertson was the daughter of Mr W M Cuthbertson of Ballarat, Vic.

Mary Elizabeth Cuthbertson was born on March 5th, 1910 in Stirling West, South Australia. She was the daughter of William Melville Cuthbertson and Lilian Beatrice Cuthbertson (Maiden name; Hooper) were married in 1909 in Mount Barker, South Australia. She was the eldest of four children and was normally called Beth. She had two younger brothers, James Lindsay Cuthbertson, Gordon Alan Cuthbertson, and a younger sister called Joan Margaret Cuthbertson. Beth was a Presbyterian.

Although Beth was born in South Australia, she grew up and lived in Ballarat, Victoria. Her father worked as the Assistant Manager at Myer Wollen Mills in Ballarat. Beth’s mother was born in 1881, in Adelaide, South Australia.

 For her schooling Beth attended Macarthur Street State School and Ballarat High School. She started her training as a nurse at Ballarat Base Hospital in 1929, and then went on to study at the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne.

In 1937 Beth’s engagement to Dr John Scholes was announced. He was a surgeon and had his own practice. He was seriously injured in a car crash in July of that year and subsequently spent many months in hospital. He suddenly died in March 1938 aged 31. 

On the September 1st, 1939, Great Britian and France declared war on Germany. Just two days later Beth was involved with the Australian Army Nursing Service as a Staff Nurse but officially enlisted in Melbourne on August 20th, 1940. Her photos upon enlistment are shown in Figure 4. Her Attestation form is shown in Figure 5. Beth enlisted as a Nursing Sister, in the Australian Amry Nursing Service and was posted at the 2nd/7th Australian General Hospital in Melbourne, Victoria. In October 1940 she moved to Puckapunyal, Victoria as the hospital was moved to a military base there.

On May 5th, 1941, she was attached to Camp Hospital Seymour in Seymour Victoria.                                                                                                            

On the August 17th, 1941, Beth was transferred to Lady Duggan Hostel at 115 G.H Heidelberg Victoria, which was a boarding location for nurses who were preparing to travel overseas. Beth was there for 4 days, before embarking on the ship Malaya 3 as a staff nurse with the Australian Army Nursing Service.

On August 23rd, 1941, she arrived in Malaya and started serving with the 10th General Hospital as a staff nurse. On the December 20th, 1941, Beth was promoted to the position of ‘Sister’ with the Australian Army Nursing Service.

On January 10th, 1942 Sister Cuthbertson was transferred to the 2nd/13th Australian Hospital. The reason for this transfer was because of the Japanese invasion of Malaya. The 10th General Hospital was forced to evacuate from Malacca, Malaya and relocate to Singapore, leaving the 2nd/13th as the only Australian Hospital operating in Malacca. Shortly after the unit’s relocation to Singapore, Cuthbertson transferred to the 2nd/13th Hospital, which continued operating in Malacca.

The 2nd/13th Hospital faced many challenges while stationed overseas. These included bombing, attacks which caused damage to both the kitchen and the hospital ward. Patients, Nurses and Cooks would have to work with complete blackouts at night and hospital beds and staff storages were a huge problem. Tents were used as make-shift isolation wards.

On January 23rd, 1942 they were cornered into evacuating to Singapore as the 10th General Hospital had recently done for the same reasons. Only 38 hours later, the hospital was re-opened with 700 beds available for patients at St Partick’s Boys school, as shown in Figure 8. Unfortunately, 700 beds were insufficient as the war casualties soon outnumbered the number of patients the nurses could properly care for. Some patients would have to lie on the grass surrounding the hospital base as there was no space for them anywhere else.

The Japanese continued to attack the hospital. The 2nd/13th Hospital leadership realised it was no longer sustainable to keep the hospital running. This was part of the ‘fall of Singapore’. A mass evacuation process started. Three ships arrived to take people from Singapore to Australia. The last ship that set sail was the SS Vyner Brooke.

Beth was one of the 65 nurses on this ship. The Japanese attacked this ship just after 2pm on the February 12th, 1942. After sustaining significant damage due to bombing the ship begin to sink. Cuthbertson was one of the people who was responsible for making sure everyone on the ship was evacuated. Some went on lifeboats and others who could swim made their way to the closest island, Bangka Island. About 150 people (including 22 nurses) made it to shore, after spending between 8-65 hours in the water beforehand. Many nurses drowned before making it to the island or arrived after these nurses were shot.  

Some people went to try and secure help from the local villages but were unsuccessful.  Sister Cuthbertson was one of the nurses that stayed on the beach to care for the wounded. An officer who had been on the SS Vyner Brooke then went to surrender the group, with the intent of being taken prisoners of war by the Japanese.

A few hours later, a group of 20 Japanese soldiers arrived on the beach. The officer from Vyner Brooke then told the Japanese soldiers that they were giving themselves up to be Prisoners of War. He was ignored. They took half the men down the beach, around 90 metres away and then they were shot. The same happened with the other half.

The sole survivor of the massacre, Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel documented: "We just looked at each other and said, 'well, they're not taking prisoners'."

"And we seemed to accept that fact."

The Japanese Soldiers then ordered them to walk into the sea and when they were waist deep, the Japanese started firing up and down the row of nurses with a machine gun. They only used one gun, and the nurses were killed one by one. This is how Sister Mary Elizabeth Cuthbertson died. This all took place on the February 16th, 1942.

Beth’s family were heartbroken when they found out what happened. A nursing scholarship for upcoming nurses/midwifes working in regional or rural parts of Australia was formed to honour her memory. It is worth $10,000 and is sponsored by her family.

There are numerous memorials dedicated to the nurses that were killed in Bangka Island massacre. A bench with a plaque, near where Beth grew up was built to honour and respect her sacrifice. It was officially opened in August 2023. On December 6th, 1943 she was appointed Lieutenant as an honorary title.