Medal group of Australian army nursing sister and POW Vivian Bullwinkel donated to the Australian War Memorial

The medal group of Australia’s most distinguished nurse, the late Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Statham (née Bullwinkel) AO MBE ARRC ED FNM, was today presented to the Australian War Memorial in a private handover ceremony.

On what would have been the nurse’s 100th birthday, the Director of the Memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson accepted the medal group from Lt-Col Bullwinkel’s nephew Mr John Bullwinkel. Dr Nelson noted that all Australians would now be able to appreciate Lt-Col Statham’s incredible achievements on display at the Memorial.

“We are truly grateful to the family for this selfless gesture. Lt-Col Bullwinkel exhibited remarkable bravery and fortitude as the sole survivor of the Banka Island massacre on 16 February 1942. Her medals will join the uniform she was wearing at the time and she kept throughout her captivity.

“From a generation that produced so many remarkable Australians, Vivian Bullwinkel was a giant among them. She was a leader and an inspiration, a woman who embodied all that is good in us. She led from both position and principle.

“Her medals will be on temporary display in the Reg Saunders Gallery from 18–21 December, before going on display in the Second World War Galleries in the New Year,” said Dr Nelson.

Vivian Bullwinkel was born in Kapunda, South Australia, and enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service, eventually being posted to Malaya with the 13th Australian General Hospital. Faced with the Japanese invasion of the Malay Peninsula, the hospital shifted her to Singapore Island in January 1942.

With the fall of Singapore imminent, Bullwinkel was among the last group of nurses, patients, women, and children evacuated to the SS Vyner Brooke. After Japanese bombers attacked and sank the ship, Bullwinkel drifted for hours clinging to a lifeboat before struggling ashore Banka Island with the other survivors.

The 22 nurses stayed on the beach to tend the wounded. When Japanese troops arrived, they gathered the nurses together and opened fire on them with machine-guns. Sister Bullwinkel was shot in the back and badly wounded, falling unconscious into the water. She awoke to find herself the only survivor of the massacre.

Bullwinkel was the first female member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial, serving from 1964 to 1969. She married Colonel Frank Statham in 1977, and died in July 2000 at the age of 84.