They left behind, in Singapore, thousands of patients. “We had to put them on the floors, in the quartermaster’s store, even in the tiny chapel, where we boarded off the altar,” one nurse, Sister Frances Cullen, later reported. “The boys were marvelous … In the last days on the island, they were begging us to let them leave the hospital. Even the ones with limb injuries said they could be carried to a gun and could lie beside it to fire it.
“We hated leaving the boys. The night we left, we were all in tears. Matron Drummond said, ‘Stop crying and try to look bright,’ ignoring the fact that tears were streaming down her own face.”
Betty Jeffrey was serving at the Manor House Casualty Hospital as Singapore fell.
“When the bombs began to fall,” she wrote in her diary, “some of the patients put their tin hats on, and for those who didn’t have tin hats, we put bed pans on their heads. The planes were firing streams of bullets. I had a tray with a cloth on it marked with a big red cross and I stepped out and lifted it up.”
When they were ordered to evacuate, all the nurses refused to go. “But our refusal was useless,” Betty added. “We were ordered to leave and just had to walk out on those superb fellows lying there – not one complaining and all needed attention.”
With their few essential possessions, the nurses were thrust into a convoy of ambulances. It was a perilous journey through dense palls of smoke, past bombed-out buildings on rubble-filled streets, seeing the unleashed fury of huge uncontained fires and watching frightened people running aimlessly in sheer terror. The ambulances finally stopped near the waterfront but with destruction everywhere, the nurses had to walk the rest of the way to the wharf.
This story is from the July 2023 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 2023 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Where to go in 2024
Who doesn't love fantasising about their next trip? We've gone for lesser-known locations, and whether you're seeking bright lights, striking natural scenery, serenity or excitement, here's where you're sure to find it.
Money matters with Effie
Didn’t reach your financial goals in 2023? While a new year won’t wipe away pressures like rising costs, there are a few things you can do now to refresh your money mojo in 2024.
Bright stars in a rugged land
The hot, dusty opal fields around Lightning Ridge in outback NSW have traditionally been a man's world. Now The Weekly meets the women who have been struck by opal fever.
The gift of life
Maureen Elliott had just months to live when she went on St Vincent's Hospital's transplant list. Thirty years on she's one of the longest living heart-lung transplant recipients in the world.
An uncaged heart
After more than two years in Iranian jails, Kylie Moore-Gilbert has forged a new life that's brimming with love, and a determination to help others who have been wrongfully imprisoned.
The woman behind The King
As Sofia Coppola's biopic Priscilla readies to hit screens, we look back at the early life and great love of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley.
Say hello to the Cockatoo cake
When we put a call-out to our readers for their best children's cakes we were inundated with recipes, and this clever cockatoo was ahead of the flock.
The French revolution
Dawn French quit her sketch show because she felt so ugly. Now the \"roly-poly comedian\" wants us all to stop fretting about our faults. She talks body image, surviving the 1980s and owning her mistakes.
Trump's women
Will it be the jailhouse or the White House for Donald Trump this year? The women in his life could make all the difference.
Can you buy a good night's sleep?
Forty per cent of Australians have trouble sleeping, and the market has responded with a mind-boggling array of sleep aids. But do any of them actually work? The Weekly goes in search of slumber.
