The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (WFX11175) Sister Alma May Beard, 13th Australian General Hospital, Royal 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 , the story for this day was on (WFX11175) Sister Alma May Beard, 13th Australian General Hospital, Royal Australian Army Nursing Service, Second World War.

WFX11175 Sister Alma May Beard, 13th Australian General Hospital, Royal Australian Army Nursing Service
Executed 16 February 1942

Today we remember and pay tribute to Sister Alma May Beard.

Alma Beard was born on 14 January 1913 at the Beard family farm “Tellmell”, in Toodyay, a town in the wheat belt region of Western Australia, 85 kilometres north-east of Perth.

The daughter of Edward and Katherine Beard, she attended the local primary school with her two siblings and later boarded at Mercedes College in Perth. She loved to ride horses and entered dressage events at the local show. She returned home at the age of 17 before commencing her nursing training at Perth Hospital.

In 1940 she took up a nursing position in Sydney, but soon returned to her home state.

Alma Beard was 28 when she enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on the 15th of August 1941. She was posted to the 13th Australian General Hospital, and in September embarked for Singapore upon the hospital ship Wanganella, arriving a week later.

Beard worked briefly with the 2/4th Casualty Clearing Station in Malaya, but soon returned to the 13th AGH. In late November 1941 the hospital was moved across the strait to Tampoi Hill on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula.

The end of 1941 saw the rapid advance of Japanese forces throughout south-east Asia. Two British warships were sunk by a Japanese air attack off Malaya and the government of Thailand formally allied itself with Japan. January would see the invasion of Burma and the Dutch East Indies, and the capture of Manila and Kuala Lumpur.

Most of the hospital staff was evacuated to Singapore in late January 1942.

Once the fall of Singapore became inevitable most Australian personnel were evacuated from the island.

Beard was one of 65 Australian nurses who left Singapore aboard the SS Vyner Brooke on 12 February. Two days later the ship was bombed by the Japanese.
Twelve nurses were killed or drowned in the water. The survivors would spend up to 65 hours in the water before stepping onto the sand of Radji Beach at Banka Island.

Some of the survivors walked to the nearest port to formally surrender to the Japanese, but Beard was among the 22 Australian nurses who remained on the beach to tend to the wounded.
On the morning of the 16th of February a group of Japanese soldiers arrived. They ordered the wounded around a headland, where they were subsequently killed.

Returning to the nurses, the Japanese set up two machine-guns on the beach and gestured for the nurses to walk into the water.

At the end of the line Beard said to her colleague Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, “Bully, there are two things I’ve always hated in my life, the Japanese and the sea, and today I’ve ended up with both.”
Of the 22 Australian nurses ordered into the sea, all but Sister Bullwinkel were killed. Alma Beard was among the dead. She was 29 years old.

Back home in Toodyay, Alma Beard was fondly remembered.

In 1945 her parents received flowers from Alma’s friends and colleagues from her years spent nursing in Western Australia and the eastern states. Her mother received a letter from Vivian Bullwinkel, which told how Alma’s “brave conduct in her hour of crisis has added lustre to the service which she so nobly carried on”.
In 1992 the Alma Beard Community Health Centre was opened in her home town of Toodyay.

Sister Alma May Beard is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial, and her name 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 Sister Alma May Beard, and all those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.