Places | |
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Accession Number | AWM2017.1.45 |
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 2017 |
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 (SFX13419) Sister Annie Merle Trenerry, 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (SFX13419) Sister Annie Merle Trenerry, 13th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service, Second World War.
Film order formSFX13419 Sister Annie Merle Trenerry, 13th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service
Drowned 14 February 1942
Photograph: P02783.028
Story delivered 14 February 2017
Today we remember and pay tribute to Sister Annie Merle Trenerry, who died during the Second World War.
Annie Trenerry was born on 31 March 1909 in the Moonta Mines district of South Australia to Edward and Ann Trenerry. Known as “Merle”, she attended school locally before going to Adelaide to study nursing alongside her sister Julia at the Hutt Street Private Hospital. She passed her nursing examinations in 1931 and later gained certificates in infectious diseases and midwifery.
After moving back to Moonta, in 1935 Trenerry was appointed Matron at Moonta Jubilee Hospital. She carried out this role for 18 months before moving to the Eyre Peninsula and joining the District and Bush Nursing Society.
Trenerry enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force on 7 February 1941 as part of the Australian Army Nursing Service. She was attached as a staff nurse to the 13th Australian General Hospital and posted to a camp hospital in Wayville. That September she embarked on the hospital ship Wanganella, arriving with her unit in Singapore.
Trenerry was variously detached for duty between the 13th AGH in Singapore and the 10th AGH in Malaya, where she was working when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. As enemy forces advanced along the peninsula, the nurses of the 10th AGH were forced to withdraw to Singapore and re-join the 13th AGH, the only Australian hospital left in Malaya. Once the fall of Singapore became inevitable most Australian personnel were evacuated from the island. The nurses of the 13th AGH remained until 12 February, before they, too, were evacuated.
Trenerry was one of 65 Australian nurses aboard the Vyner Brooke, which, two days later, was bombed by the Japanese. Many lives were lost. Some survivors were helped into lifeboats, others clung to rafts. Those who could swim made for the nearby Banka Island.
Trenerry managed to climb onto a raft with six other nurses on it. Two, Betty Jeffery and Iole Harper, volunteered to lighten the raft, and swam for land. The raft was caught in a current and drifted away from the others. The remaining nurses, including Merle Trenerry, were never seen again. She was 32 years old.
Annie Merle Trenerry is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial, and on a plaque dedicated in 1947 in the nurses’ chapel of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Its inscription reads:
In loving memory of South Australian members of the Australian Army Nursing Service who made the supreme sacrifice (killed by Japanese), World War 1939–1945.
In 2003 a street in Port Hughes, near Moonta, was renamed “Trenerry Place” in recognition of the family’s contribution to mining in the area and Merle’s sacrifice.
Trenerry is commemorated on the Roll of Honour on my left, among 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 Sister Annie Merle Trenerry, who gave her life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.
Christina Zissis
Editor, Military History Section
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Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (SFX13419) Sister Annie Merle Trenerry, 13th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service, Second World War. (video)