The Newsletter of All Saints’ Cathedral Parish Bathurst

and St Barnabas’ Parish South Bathurst

A Service Of Commemoration and Choral Evensong—Sunday 18 February 2018

he story of the SS Vyner Brooke is not an easy or comfortable one.

It speaks so much of what is senseless and evil in the act of war:

the loss if innocent lives, the great inhumanity and enormous destruction

of which man is capable; and our capacity to kill and inflict pain and grief,

seemingly without misgiving or remorse.

On the evening of the 12th of February 1942, with the fall of Singapore

imminent, the SS Vyner Brooke sailed from Singapore Harbour. On board

were some 181 passengers making their bid for safety: wounded soldiers,

Australian and British; civilians, women and children; and 65 nurses from

the 2/13th Australian General Hospital.

The families of three of those nurses on board – Sr Mary Clarke,

Matron Irene Drummond and Sr Bessie Wilmott are with us today.

The safety that all those people on the Vyner Brooke sought was not to be.

Exposed on a flat sea just inside the Bangka Strait, the Vyner Brooke was

bombed from the air, barely a day into its journey. She rolled and sank bow

first, in just half an hour.

Survivors clung to debris and floats. The sea is a vast and unforgiving

landscape: many simply disappeared across the horizon, never to be seen

again, their final fate at the mercy of the ocean and the elements. Not

many, but some, made it to land. Amongst the survivors were 22 nurses.

They landed on Radji Beach, which was occupied by the Japanese, and on

that beach there was to be a massacre – a massacre that, even by the local

standards of that war and that time, stands out for the horror of the

activity. After surrendering, the men were marched around the headland

where they were summarily shot and bayonetted. Those too sick or injured

to walk were simply killed where they lay. The nurses were then ordered

back into the water. As the ocean reached their hips, they were machine-

gunned from behind.

T

The address to the Congregation by His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter

Cosgrove AK MC (Retd) Govenor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia at the

Service of Commemoration to acknowledge the 76th Anniversary of the sinking of The

SS Vyner Brooke at All Saints Cathedral Bathurst on Sunday 18 February 2018.

We worship on the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri people and we honour and pay our respects to elders past and present.

One survivor recalls the girls fell upon each other. An atrocity in every sense – no greater cruelty, no

greater demonstration of murderous intent is imaginable: a complete disregard for life, for dignity, for

humanity inconceivable.

Despite of this, some life remained. The indomitable, famous Vivienne Bullwinkle survived by playing

dead. Later, she would join 32 other nurses interned for the duration of the war. Sadly, eight of these

would not make it home, perishing at the hands of their captors.

But we’re not here primarily to dwell on the atrocity of war. We’re here to remember, to

commemorate, to celebrate and to honour those who in the face of adversity, in the most trying

circumstances, dedicated themselves to the service of others. That is what the nurses on board the SS

Vyner Brooke did. When the nation called, they were there - giving themselves, their energy, love and

compassion, demonstrating their skill and proving their dedication. They served others, putting duty, the

greater good, their fellow man before all else.

This is their legacy: this is what we choose to remember. This is what we hold close. This is the story

of service and sacrifice we take from the Vyner Brooke incident, just as it is the story we take from all who

have served in so many conflicts from the Boer War to the present day. In all, we know of 102 serving

nurses who have lost their lives. Alongside them, civilian nurses such as Rose Wyles and Cecilia Bauer,

killed treating those suffering the pneumonic plague over a century ago; and Gayle Woodford, killed

working alone in a remote part of South Australia, more recently.

For all nurses, in whatever capacity they serve today, today we pause and recognise, and give

thanks. Our nurses remind us all – they remind us of what is good about the human spirit. They remind us

that there is no greater service than the service to others. So often, it is under the unforgiving glare of

conflict that the very best –and worst – of human nature is exposed. Under pressure, in circumstances

beyond our will or choosing, our character, our true mettle, is revealed.

Among the senselessness of the Vyner Brooke, amongst all the tragedy, we saw the character, the

stoicism and resilience of our Australian nurses, not just of the military, but emblematic of all nurses. It is

this legacy that sustains and inspires us to this day. May God bless you all.

Transcript & Photos Courtesy of Lew Hitchick