Alma May BEARD

Alma May BEARD. Nursing Sister (Lieutenant) WFX11175 Australian Army Nursing Service 13th Australian General Hospital. Born 14 January 1913 at Toodyay, Western Australia to Edward William and Katherine Mary Beard. Enlisted at Perth on the 15 August 1941 and resided at Toodyay, Western Australia, occupation trained nurse.
She and sixty-four Australian nurses, wounded service men and 250 civilian men, women and children were evacuated on Vyner Brooke from Singapore on the 12 February 1942. 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 29. Only one nurse survived, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel.
Commemorated on the Singapore Memorial, Singapore