THE RSL Applecross Sub-Branch (WA) is seeking to make contact with any relatives of Upper Hunter local hero Sister Ada Joyce Bridge.
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The Australian Army Nurse, of Stony Creek, Belltrees, via Scone, was killed in the World War II massacre of 21 nurses at Radji Beach on the Indonesian island of Bangka in February 1942.
Her life story can be found in a book by Joan Crouch (a nurse who trained with Joyce) titled, One Life is Ours: The Story of Ada Joyce Bridge, published in 1989 by the Darlinghurst, NSW, St Luke’s Hospital Nightingale Committee.
The slaughter of the nurses, who had surrendered to Japanese forces in World War II, was an epic event in Australia’s military history.
It moved the entire nation to grief, when our country became aware of the atrocity after the liberation of the surviving nurses at war’s end.
The Australian Army Nurses, trapped in Singapore by advancing Japanese forces, stayed at their posts treating casualties in chaotic makeshift conditions, through heavy bombing and fighting, until they were ordered to evacuate just two days before the Fall of Singapore, having declined an earlier opportunity to leave.
On February 14, 1942, the small motor vessel Vyner Brooke, on which 65 Australian Army Nurses and 250 civilians were evacuated, was attacked by Japanese dive bombers and sunk, with heavy loss of life, near the Indonesian Island of Bangka.
An annual commemoration service is held in Perth on the nearest Sunday to the date of the sinking.
Of the 65 Army Nurses on the Vyner Brooke, 12 were lost in the sinking, including one of their two beloved Matrons, Matron Olive Paschke.
Of the 53 nurses who were able to swim or float to shore, 21 (including their other Matron, Irene Drummond) were massacred by a squad of Japanese soldiers who captured them on Radji Beach, Bangka Island.
Thirty-two nurses who came ashore elsewhere on Bangka Island were taken prisoner and, of these, one in four died of ill treatment, malnutrition or tropical diseases during the next three-and-a-half years spent in squalid prison camps.
Only 24 of the original 65 Army Nurses evacuated on the Vyner Brooke survived to return to Australia at war’s end.
Also, in these makeshift prison camps with the Australian Army Nurses, were many expatriate civilian British women, and a number of children, as well as a small number of British army nurses, captured while being evacuated from Singapore.
There was also a significant number of Dutch women who had been living in Indonesia.
The Australian and British army nurses, despite their own weak and emaciated condition, and using improvised dressings and the most basic forms of antisepsis and medicaments, lived up to the highest ideals of their profession by providing nursing care to the sick and dying women and children who were held captive with them.
At war’s end, when they returned home to Australia after liberation from their prison camp, the 24 surviving Australian Army Nurses were feted with welcoming ceremonies and nationwide publicity.
There was also an amazing fundraising effort, which included nurses such as Vivian Bullwinkel and Betty Jeffrey giving talks around the country, which raised several million dollars in today’s terms, to build a residential and recreational memorial centre for nurses in Melbourne.
Sister Vivian Bullwinkel was also invited to give evidence at the war crimes trials in Japan after the war.
The Japanese officer who ordered the massacre at Radji Beach was located and arrested for war crimes but committed suicide before he could be tried.
The 75th anniversary of the sinking of the Vyner Brooke will take place on Sunday, February 12, from 10.15am, at the Army Nurses Memorial, Honour Avenue, Point Walter Reserve, Bicton, Western Australia.
Relatives or friends of Sister Ada Joyce Bridge, or of any other Vyner Brooke army nurses, are welcome to attend the commemoration.
Her Excellency the Honourable Kerry Sanderson AC Governor of Western Australia has accepted an invitation to attend.
Those wishing to receive an invitation and/or further information should contact Helen Pickering of the Applecross RSL at email pickjh@bigpond.com or on (08) 9364 8564.