ARCHIVAL ANECDOTES
THE
VYNER BROOKE TRAGEDY 80 TH ANNIVERSARY
IN A TIME WHEN WE ARE WITNESS TO THE DAILY DEDICATION OF MEDICAL STAFF IN OUR COMMUNITY, WE REMEMBER THE SERVICE AND SACRIFICE OF OUR WORLD WAR II AUSTRALIAN ARMY NURSES WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE SINKING OF THE SS. VYNER BROOKE AND THE LATER MASSACRE OF THE SURVIVING CASUALTIES AND NURSES AT RADJI BEACH ON BANKA ISLAND, INDONESIA, ON 16 FEBRUARY 1942.
T
he sounds of pipe and drum led the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the tragedy of the Vyner Brooke on Sunday 13 February 2022. A memorial titled, ‘Our Nursing Heritage: The Vyner Brooke Tragedy’, stands beside a large pool of water, surrounded by a grove of shading trees, each named with a small plaque for each nurse who perished. Situated in the City of Melville, a stone’s throw from the Swan River, it is a peaceful and reflective tribute to our lost
nurses and their resolute belief in service and duty. On such a beautiful morning in February, it was difficult to imagine the horror that befell the World War II hospital ship, the Vyner Brooke, the last ship to leave Singapore Harbour before it fell to the Japanese occupation in February of 1942. One of the nurses who died on that fateful beach was an Old Girl of St Mary’s, Peggy Everett Farmaner (’30). The official collection record from the Australian War Memorial (P02783.007) states:
“…Sister Peggy Everett Farmaner, 2/4th Casualty Clearing Station, Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). She was one of 65 Australian nurses and over 250 civilian men, women and children evacuated on the Vyner Brooke from Singapore, three days before the fall of Malaya. The Vyner Brooke was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sunk in Banka Strait on 14 February 1942. Of the 65 nurses on board, 12 were lost at sea and 32 survived the sinking and were captured as Prisoners of War (POWs) of whom eight later died
LEFT TO RIGHT: Peggy Everett Farmaner (’30) c/o Australian War Memorial; Peggy, circled, pictured with her fellow 1929 prefects.
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FIDELITER Archival Anecdotes
