Portrait of TFX6012 Lieutenant Wilhemina Rosalie Raymont, 2/4th Casualty Clearing Station (2/4th ...

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Accession Number P00805.001
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white
Physical description Black & white
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Portrait of TFX6012 Lieutenant Wilhemina Rosalie Raymont, 2/4th Casualty Clearing Station (2/4th CCS), Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). She was one of sixty five Australian nurses and over 250 civilian men, women and children evacuated on the Vyner Brook 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, twenty two 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 Prisoner of War (POW), but only Sister Bullwinkel survived the war. Sister Raymont was one of the remaining thirty two nurses who also survived the sinking and were captured as POWs, eight of which later died in captivity. Sister Raymont died of illness on 8 February 1945 in Sumatra.