Historical information

The newspaper clipping is the second of two extract from 'Prisoners of War: Australians Under Nippon', by Hank Nelson.

The extract touches on the conditions the nurses serving in Singapore experienced, moving into the eventual evacuation. The first nurses were evacuated on February 10, [1942], with half of the remainder the following day, and the final nurses were evacuated February 13. These sixty-five nurses were aboard the Vyner Brooke with 300 other passengers, mostly women and children. The ship was spotted and bombed the next day. Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, clinging to the side of a lifeboat, came ashore on Radji Beach, Banka Island. She became one of a group of twenty-two nurse, other Vyner Brooke passengers and twenty British soldier from another bombed ship. This group decided to surrender to the Japanese, who proceeded to kill all but one British soldier and Vivian Bullwinkel. After holding out for ten days the pair made their way to Muntok, hiding the evidence they had both survived a massacre.
Of the sixty-five nurses to board the Vyner Brooke, twelve had drowned, twenty-one had been killed on the beach and thirty-two became prisoners of war (POW).

Physical description

A newspaper clipping consisting of four large columns of text and a small black and white photo of an older woman (head).

Inscriptions & markings

'A[G]E / 26/4'[blue ink, top left]