Luke Grant speaks with Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward, CEO of the Australian College of Nursing, to pay respects to the nurses who lost their lives during the sinking of the Vyner Brooke on 14 February 1942 and Bangka Island Massacre on 16 February 1942.

65 Australian Army Nursing Service nurses were evacuated from Singapore on the SS Vyner Brooke due to the pending Japanese invasion. 12 died when the ship was bombed in the Bangka Strait shortly after leaving port.

22 of the group made their way to the nearby Bangka Island where they became victims of one of the worst atrocities of the war. The nurses were ordered to walk into the sea and were machine-gunned from behind in what is now known as the Bangka Island Massacre. 21 died, with only Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel AO, MBE, ARRC, ED, FNM, FRCNA surviving after receiving non-fatal gunshot wounds.

Professor Ward says, “When the bombs were falling on the ship, it was the nurses who stood tall to lead the ship’s evacuation and treat the injured. On Bangka Island, they endured exceptionally trying conditions in the face of death.”

“To ensure their legacy lives on, The Australian College of Nursing Foundation is establishing a scholarship in the name of each of the 21 nurses who died in the Bangka Island Massacre, in addition to leading the fundraising to erect a sculpture of Vivian Bullwinkel in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial.”

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