Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel AO MBE ARRC ED FNM

Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Statham (née Bullwinkel) AO MBE ARRC ED FNM

Vivian Bullwinkel was born on 18 December 1915 and trained as a nurse and midwife at Broken Hill, New South Wales. After graduating in 1938 she worked as a nurse in Victoria before enlisting in the Australian Army Nursing Service in 1941. In September of that year she sailed for Singapore as a sister with the 2/13th Australian General Hospital (2/13th AGH). Following the Japanese invasion of Malaya in December, the hospital was withdrawn to Singapore, and on 12 February 1942 Vivian, along with 65 other nurses, was evacuated on the SS Vyner Brooke.

On 16 February the ship was sunk by Japanese bombers, and she together with 21 other nurses and a larger number of (mostly civilian) men, women, and children, reached shore on Banka Island in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). The group decided to surrender to the Japanese, and the civilian women and children were sent towards the town of Muntok, where it was anticipated that food and assistance would be available.

Shortly afterwards a group of Japanese soldiers arrived and killed all the men, before motioning the nurses to wade into the ocean; as soon as the water was at their waists the nurses were gunned down. Bullwinkel was shot through the abdomen, the bullet miraculously missing her vital organs, and she fell unconscious into the water. Waking up to find herself the only survivor, she found British Private Cecil Kinsley, who had been bayonetted but feigned death. The two hid in the jungle for 12 days before deciding to attempt to surrender once more. This time they were taken into captivity, although Private Kinsley died of his wounds soon afterwards.

In captivity Bullwinkel was forced to keep her wound and her survival of the massacre a secret, and she did not speak of it for three and a half years, for fear of immediate execution by the Japanese. She was finally able to tell her story publicly in September 1945, and testified at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials in 1947. She was the sole survivor of the Banka Island massacre, and one of just 24 of the 65 nurses aboard the Vyner Brooke to survive the war.

Bullwinkel retired from the military in 1947, although she remained a member of the Citizens’ Forces (reserve) for many years, and eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant

Colonel. Her nursing career flourished, and for 16 years she was Matron of Melbourne’s Fairfield Hospital. Later she became President of the College of Nursing. In 1973 she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, and in 1993 became an Officer of the Order of Australia. Already awarded the Royal Red Cross 2nd Class (ARRC) for her military service, she was further honoured in 1947 by the presentation of the Florence Nightingale Medal, the world’s highest honour available to nurses. Bullwinkel was also the first female member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial, serving from 1964 to 1969. She married Colonel Frank Statham in 1977.

Vivian’s full medal group includes:

• Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) (1993)
• Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) (1973)
• Associate Member of the Royal Red Cross (ARRC) (1947)
• 1939–45 Star
• Pacific Star
• War Medal 1939–1945
• Australia Service Medal 1939–45
• Efficiency Decoration (ED)
• Florence Nightingale Medal (Red Cross)
• Vivian died in July 2000 at the age of 84. She left behind a significant legacy, including;
• The Vivian Bullwinkel Wing at Hollywood Private Hospital, Perth (formerly the Repatriation General Hospital, Hollywood);
• The Royal Australian Air Force Association Vivian Bullwinkel Lodge aged-care facility in the northern suburbs of Perth;
• The Vivian Bullwinkel Chair in Palliative Care Nursing at Monash University;
• A common room at the redeveloped nurses quarters at the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE’s Fairfield campus. Bullwinkel was the Director of Nursing for many years at the Fairfield Hospital