Ada Joyce BRIDGE. Nursing Sister (Lieutenant) NFX76284 AANS A.I.F , (formerly AANS N108177) attached to 13th Australian General Hospital.
Born 6 July 1907 at Stoney Creek, Scone, New South Wales to William Thomas Bridge and Ada Matilda Bridge, of Stoney Creek, New South Wales, Australia.
Notes from her service records.
Enlisted 08 April 1941 and given number N108177 at Victoria Barracks, Sydney N.S.W. aged 33 years, occupation, trained nurse. Her mother was her next of kin. She volunteered to join the Australian Imperial Force for overseas duty and was called up for duty with 13 Australian General Hospital on the 19 April 1941 and allotted number NFX76284. 29 August 1941 embarked 13 Australian General Hospital from Sydney Australia, on 2/2 Hospital Ship bound for Singapore, Malaya. Disembarked Singapore 15 September 1941 where she and other nurses detached for duty to 1/10 Australian General Hospital, Malacca Malaya. She embarked with 13th A.G.H from Singapore bound for Australia on evacuation ship Vyner Brooke.
Commemorated on the Singapore Memorial, Singapore. Included in the Nurses’ War Memorial Chapel in Westminster Abbey, London
Roll of Honour Scone NSW.
The following is not in her records, but the harrowing events are well documented.
The 12 February 1942, 13 A.G.H, sixty-four Australian nurses, wounded service men and 250 civilian men, women and children were evacuated on Vyner Brooke from Singapore bound for Australia. The ship was bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft of Banka island east of Sumatra on the 14 February 1942. Some of the survivors reached the island only to be captured by the Imperial Japanese Army Some were imprisoned in Palembang and Muntok POW camps others were massacred including twenty-one nurses. On the 16 February 1942 the nurses were ordered to march into the sea and stand in a row where they were shot from behind. She was aged 34. Only one nurse survived, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel.
Her record links
recordsearch.naa.gov.au
recordsearch.naa.gov.au
Click on the below link for the memorial and then search for her name.
Sixty five Australian nurses and over 250 civilian men, women and children evacuated on the Vyner Brooke from Singapore, three days before the fall of Malaya. The Vyner Brooke was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sunk in Banka Strait on 14...
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