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Vyner Brooke MemorialPrint Page 
The plaque commemorates forty-one members of the Australian Army Nursing Service who died as a result of the bombing and sinking of the S.S. Vyner Brooke on the 14th February 1942.
The plaque was unveiled in 1992 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Coast Chapel, a national war memorial to Australian Nurses who survived and died in World War One and World War Two.
Location
| Address: | Pine Avenue, The Coast Chapel, Prince Henry Hospital Conservation Area, Little Bay, 2036 |
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| State: | NSW |
| Area: | AUS |
| GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -33.980426 Long: 151.249923 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
| Monument Type: | Plaque |
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| Monument Theme: | Conflict |
| Sub-Theme: | WW2 |
Dedication
| Actual Monument Dedication Date: | Wednesday 11th November, 1992 |
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In honoured memory of the forty-one members of the Australian Army Nursing Service casualties of the bombing and sinking of the S.S. Vyner Brooke by Japanese aircraft on 14th February 1942.
The Japanese invasion of Malaya was reaching its final goal, the capture of Singapore, when sixty- five Australian Army Nurses together with others left that burning island aboard the S.S. Vyner Brooke on 12th February 1942.
Sadly the evacuees did not reach a safe haven. The Vyner Brooke (1670 gross tons) sailed into the path of a large Japanese force set to invade Sumatra, Banka and all the islands of the Netherland East Indies (now Indonesia) and was lost after a gallant struggle against the enemy.
Army Nurses killed or drowned when S.S. Vyner Brooke was bombed and sunk off Banka Island 14th February 1942.
[ Names ]
Twenty-two Army Nurses reached Banka Island in a lifeboat. A Japanese Army patrol found the nurses resting on a beach by a fire. The Officer in Charge ordered the women, two of whom were badly wounded, to walk into the sea where when knee-deep they were remorselessly machine-gunned until all were dead except one, Sister Vivien Bullwinkle, who, although wounded, escaped the slaughter, was later taken Prisoner of War together with the thirty-one Australian Army Nurses survivors from the Vyner Brooke; of these eight died in prison-camp and only twenty-four returned to Australia in 1945.
Massacred on Banka Island Beach by the Japanese on 16th February 1942.
[ Names ]
Died in Prisoner of War camps.
At Banka Island:
[ Names ]
At Loeboek, Lingau, Sumatra:
[ Names ]
They served humanity and their country with passion and courage
Lest We Forget
Unveiled by His Excellency Rear Admiral Peter Sinclair A.C., Governor of New South Wales, on 11th November 1992 to mark the twentyfifth anniversary of the dedication on 11th November 1967 of The Coast Chapel, a National War Memorial to Australian Nurses who served and died in World War Iand II.
This plaque was presented by the Prince Henry Hospital Trained Nurses Association in memory of their esteemed colleagues.
