Eileen Norah AYERS

Eileen Norah AYERS. Nursing Sister 206581 QAIMNS. Serving at the17th Combined General Hospital, Singapore.
Born 1916 to Charles William (CBE, CIE) and Harriet Ayres, nee Higgs.
1937-1940 residing at 113 Mincheden Crescent, Southgate, London. Nursing Training at University College Hospital, London.
25 February 1941 she disembarked with four nursing sisters, one being Irene Wright, at Glasgow, from Port Said, Durban Nursing. Sister Wright was also killed on this ship.

Died 14 February 1942.

She was a passenger on (Evacuation Ship) SS Kuala which had escaped from Singapore a day before the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. This ship was sunk 12 hours later by Japanese bombers on 14 February 1942 near Pom Pong Island. Many women and children were killed on the ship itself, but the Japanese continued direct bombing of the sea whilst the survivors, who were desperately try to swim the few hundred yards to safety on the shore of Pom Pong island. The bombing continued even onto the Island itself as the survivors scrambled across slippery rocks and up the steep slopes of the jungle tangled hills of this small uninhabited island in the Indonesian Archipelago. There is no knowing where she was actually killed… last seen after first direct hit on ship by MA Evans and other members of the QAIMNS.

Commemorated on the Singapore Memorial, Singapore.