Image: Vivian Bullwinkel

Description: Studio portrait of Staff Nurse Vivian Bullwinkel, Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS), in service dress uniform. Bullwinkel is well known as the sole survivor of the infamous Banka Island massacre in which 21 of her AANS colleagues were killed by Japanese troops. Bullwinkel was born on 18 December 1915 at Kapunda, SA, and enlisted in the AANS in 1941. In September 1941 she embarked for Singapore as a staff nurse with the 2/13th Australian General Hospital (2/13th AGH). On 12 February 1942, three days before the fall of Singapore, Bullwinkel, along with 65 other Australian Army nursing sisters, was evacuated from Singapore on board the SS Vyner Brooke. On the 14 February, while on route to Sumatra via Banka Strait, the ship was sunk by Japanese aircraft. Twenty-two nurses, including Bullwinkel, and a large group of British soldiers, men, women, and children made it ashore at Radji Beach on Banka Island. The group decided to surrender and a group comprising of the civilian women and children, accompanied by some of the men, went to find Japanese troops while the rest of the group waited. When Japanese soldiers arrived, the men were executed and the 22 sisters were ordered to walk into the sea and were machine gunned from behind. Bullwinkel, struck by a bullet, pretended to be dead. She and the only other survivor of the massacre, a wounded British soldier, Private (Pte) Kinsley, hid for 12 days before surrendering. Both were taken into captivity, but Pte Kinsley died soon after. Bullwinkel spent three and half years in captivity and was one of just 24 of the 65 nurses who had been on the SS Vyner Brooke to survive the war. Her courage while a prisoner of the Japanese exemplified the bravery of Australian women in war, and her distinguished post-war career was marked by many humanitarian and career achievements. Vivian Statham (nee Bullwinkel) died on 3 July 2000.
Title: Vivian Bullwinkel
Credit:  This image is available from the Collection Database of the Australian War Memorial under the ID Number: P03960.001 This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information. Български | English | Français | हिन्दी | Македонски | Português | +/−
Author: Mendelssohn, F B & Company
Permission: This image is of Australian origin and is now in the public domain because its term of copyright has expired. According to the Australian Copyright Council (ACC), ACC Information Sheet G023v17 (Duration of copyright) (August 2014). Type of material Copyright has expired if ...  A  Photographs or other works published anonymously, under a pseudonym or the creator is unknown: taken or published prior to 1 January 1955  B  Photographs (except A): taken prior to 1 January 1955  C  Artistic works (except A & B): the creator died before 1 January 1955  D  Published editions1 (except A & B): first published more than 25 years ago  E  Commonwealth or State government owned2 photographs and engravings: taken or published more than 50 years ago and prior to 1 May 1969 1 means the typographical arrangement and layout of a published work. eg. newsprint. 2owned means where a government is the copyright owner as well as would have owned copyright but reached some other agreement with the creator. When using this template, please provide information of where the image was first published and who created it. català | Deutsch | English | español | français | македонски | മലയാളം | Nederlands | русский | slovenščina | Türkçe | українська | +/− You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States.
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License: Public domain
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