Place | Asia: Netherlands East Indies, Sumatra, Palembang |
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Accession Number | PAFU2015/054.01 |
Collection type | Film |
Object type | Last Post film |
Physical description | 16:9 |
Maker |
Australian War Memorial |
Place made | Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell |
Date made | 14 February 2015 |
Access | Open |
Conflict |
Second World War, 1939-1945 |
Copyright |
Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial![]() |
Copying Provisions | Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction. |
The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NFX70498) Captain Winnie May Davis, 10th 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (NFX70498) Captain Winnie May Davis, 10th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service, Second World War.
Film order formNFX70498 Captain Winnie May Davis, 10th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service
DOD 19 July 1945
Photograph: P03769.001
Story delivered 14 February 2015
Today we remember and pay tribute to Captain Winnie May Davis.
Winnie Davis was the eldest daughter of James and Laura Davis, born on 7 July 1915 in Ulmarra, in the Clarence River area of New South Wales. Prior to the breakout of war she worked as a nurse, and was known as “Win”. At 25 she enlisted into the Emergency Unit on 10 December 1940 at Victoria Barracks, Sydney.
Davis disembarked at Singapore in March 1941 and was attached to the 10th Australian General Hospital of the Australian Army Nursing Service. From there she was sent with the unit to Malacca. In those early months conditions for the nurses were good. They attended dances, were able to utilise sports clubs’ facilities, and could travel to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore when on leave.
This changed when the Japanese began to invade the peninsula. The 10th AGH’s position became unsustainable, and its staff soon retreated to Singapore. Here conditions were difficult, with frequent blackouts and casualties coming in at a fast rate.
The Japanese landed on the island on the night of 8 February, and with the fall of Singapore imminent the decision was made to evacuate the nurses. Davis was among the last of the nurses to be evacuated, and left on 12 February – three days before Singapore’s capitulation.
Davis boarded the Vyner Brooke along with 300 others, mostly women and children. It was a slow vessel, and two days later in Banka Strait it came under attack from Japanese aircraft, and the order was given to abandon ship.
In the water Davis and fellow nurse Sister Janet Gunther clung to a bit of wood until they found a raft. The raft already held another nurse, a radio operator and two British sailors, one of whom was badly burned, and later three civilian women joined them. It was a small raft, so those who could took turns to swim beside it while holding onto the ropes. One of the civilian women fell unconscious and drifted away, never to be seen again. The wounded sailor also slipped off the raft during the night, and the others were too weak to pull him back.
Suffering from abrasions, exhaustion, and severe sunburn, the group was picked up by a Japanese ship. The prisoners were given a drink and a little food and were kept in a pig pen overnight. The next day they were taken to a gaol in Muntok, and then on to Palembang.
As prisoners of war they suffered many privations – poor sanitary conditions, limited food and water supply, cramped sleeping areas – and conditions only worsened as the years went on. The group moved camps numerous times, usually for the worse, and all were put to hard labour. In 1945 an epidemic of “Banka fever” swept the camp; the symptoms were high temperature, periods of unconsciousness, and skin infection. On 19 July Winnie Davis died of illness, less than a month before the end of the war. She was 30 years old.
Davis is buried at the Jakarta War Cemetery in Indonesia, and her name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 Australians who died in the Second World War. Her photograph is displayed today 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 Winnie May Davis, and all of those Australians who gave their lives in the service of our nation.
Jennifer Surtees
Last Post Ceremony Project Team
Sources:
National Archives of Australia, Winnie May Davis, service record.
Sound recording S02024: Janet Patteson (Pat) Darling (nee Gunther) interviewed by Barbara Orchard about her experiences as a nurse and prisoner of war of the Japanese: http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/S02024.
Allan Seymour Walker, Official history of Australia in the war of 1939–1945: series 5 – medical, volume IV (1st ed.), Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1961, pp. 441–42.
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Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NFX70498) Captain Winnie May Davis, 10th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service, Second World War (video)