Sister Kathleen (Kath) Margaret Neuss entertaining a child at Royal Prince Albert Hospital, ...

Sister Kathleen (Kath) Margaret Neuss entertaining a child at Royal Prince Albert Hospital, Sydney. Sister Neuss volunteered for service in 1940 and was assigned to the 2/10th Australian General Hospital (AGH), Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS), service number NFX70527. She was one of sixty five Australian nurses and over 250 civilian men, women and children evacuated on the Vyner Brooke from Singapore, three days before the fall of Malaya. The Vyner Brooke was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sunk in Banka Strait on 14 February 1942. Of the sixty five nurses on board, twelve were lost at sea and thirty two survived the sinking and were captured as Prisoners of War (POWs) of which eight later died during captivity. Sister Neuss was one of the remaining twenty two nurses who also survived the sinking and were washed ashore on Radji Beach, Banka Island, where they surrendered to the Japanese, along with twenty five British soldiers. On 16 February 1942 the group was massacred, the soldiers were bayoneted and the nurses were ordered to march into the sea where they were shot. Only Sister Vivian Bullwinkel and a British soldier survived the massacre. Both were taken POW, but only Sister Bullwinkel survived the war.

• Informal group portrait of members of 2/10th Australian General Hospital at Malaya. Identified ...