The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (QX22714) Captain Pauline Blanche Hempsted, 2/13th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Tristan Rallings, the story for this day was on (QX22714) Captain Pauline Blanche Hempsted, 2/13th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service, Second World War.

QX22714 Captain Pauline Blanche Hempsted, 2/13th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service
DOI: 19 March 1945

Today we remember and pay tribute to Captain Pauline Blanche Hempsted.

Known as “Blanche”, Pauline Hempsted was born on 9 September 1908 to Percy and Bertha Louise Hempsted of the Brisbane suburb of Graceville. Her father was a commercial traveller, her mother on home duties. The family was hit with tragedy early on, when Pauline’s brother, Claude, was killed when he was only 11, crushed between a train and the platform.

Hempsted enjoyed social events and dances, and attended St Margaret’s Girls School in Brisbane. She trained as a nurse at Brisbane General Hospital from 1934 to 1938.
On 27 April 1941, Hempsted enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service and was attached to the 13th Australian General Hospital. Posted to Singapore and Malaya, she was a notorious hard worker who took charge in the face of sudden influxes of patients.

In late 1941 Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor and began an assault on northern Malaya, moving south toward Singapore. Even as the fall of Singapore seemed inevitable, there was a strong sense among the Australian nurses that they should stay with their patients, in accordance with their oath of service and duty to the wounded. However, they were ordered to evacuate, and Hempsted was one of 65 Australian nurses who left Singapore aboard the Vyner Brooke on 12 February 1942.
Two days later the ship was bombed by the Japanese and some 30 lives were lost. As they fled the sinking, some passengers were put into lifeboats, and those who could swim made for the nearby Banka Island.

Hempsted made it to an overturned lifeboat, and a group of survivors managed to overturn it and climb in. However, shrapnel holes meant the boat was sinking, so they crowded among nearby rafts. Without oars, they drifted aimlessly, and all who could took turns swimming alongside to lighten the load. Eventually, two Australian airmen and some Malay locals were able to rescue those aboard the raft and bring them into land. The women were subsequently captured by the Japanese and taken to a camp at Muntok in Sumatra.

Life in the internment camp was harsh, punctuated by diminishing rations, harsh conditions, and cruel treatment by Japanese soldiers. The nurses worked hard to keep their spirits up, organising concerts and crafting things to sell in exchange for money to buy food.

In late 1943 the nurses were allowed to write postcards home. Hempsted’s letter to her mother was upbeat, and read:
The thrill of being able to write after 12 months’ silence and to let you know I am absolutely fit and well, in fact never felt better in health. Had trouble with my ear at first, always do with ocean water, but it was soon rectified. We are in a pretty little place, quiet and peaceful, away from any sort of turmoil. You will be disappointed to know your album is at the bottom of the sea … we have lost everything, but nevertheless we are among friends who do their best to keep things and us well and contented … Keep well and look forward to the happy day when you will be welcoming me home again.

As the years wore on some of the internees succumbed to the lack of food and ever-present illnesses. Pauline Hempsted died after a long battle with beriberi on 19 March 1945. She was remembered as an extremely hard worker, and fellow nurse Jessie Simons later wrote that “she was sorry for the trouble her illness had caused”.

After the war Hempsted’s remains were reinterred at the Jakarta War Cemetery.

Changes to the structure of the Australian Imperial Force in 1943 saw serving nurses given ranks similar to their male counterparts. Though she never knew it, Blanche Hempsted was made captain in 1943.

Hempsted’s mother, who had already lost her son and her husband, who died in 1942, was informed of her daughter’s death in 1945. In the years afterwards, in memoriam notices were placed in the newspapers, ending with the words, “Her duty nobly done.” As funds were raised to support nurses imprisoned in the war, several donations were made in Hempsted’s memory.

Captain Pauline Blanche Hempsted is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 others from the Second World War. Her photograph is displayed beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Captain Blanche Hempsted, and all those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.
Christina Zissis
Editor, Military History Section