WAR NURSES MURALS
Two poignant murals painted by artist Shakey, can be seen on the current BankWest building next to the CRC.
The first one depicts a lone nurse laying tributes in the ocean to her fallen comrades.
The second one shows happy faces leaving port aboard the ship, a lone portrait of Minnie Hodgson and nurses tending to the wounded.
Minnie Hodgson was born in Perth WA, on 16th August 1908, daughter of John & Contrary Hodgson, later living on the family farm near Yealering. Minnie attended Yealering & West Leederville state schools & completed her secondary education at Presbyterian Ladies’ College & Methodist Ladies’ College. She (then 21) began nurse training at the Children’s Hospital (later becoming Princess Margaret Hospital) and then nursed at the King Edward Memorial Hospital. Minnie returned to the country, nursing at various Wheatbelt Hospitals & prior to her enlistment was the Matron at the Kondinin & Districts Hospital.
Minnie was among 65 nurses onboard the SS Vyner Brooke, the last ship carrying evacuees from Singapore, when it was bombed by the Japanese.
About 150 survivors, including 22 nurses, washed up on Bangka Island.
Despite surrendering to the Japanese, the men were shot and bayoneted, and the women were forced to wade into the sea, where they were then shot from behind.
Only one nurse, Vivian Bullwinkel, survived the massacre. Shot through the hip, she feigned death and floated on the tide. Though Vivian spent the next three years interned in a POW camp, she lived to tell the tale. The only reason we know what happened on Radji beach that day is because she survived.
Of the 65 Australian Army nurses on that fateful Vyner Brooke ship, only 24 returned home to Australia. There were five Western Australian nurses on the Vyner Brooke; one drowned at sea, the other four were killed at Radji beach including Minnie Ivy Hodgson, aged just 33 years.
Minnie has no known grave. However, she is commemorated at the Kranji War Memorial at the War Cemetery in Singapore and at memorials at the Australia War Memorial, King’s Park, Banka Island and at Bicton.
Source: Shakey Murals
The first one depicts a lone nurse laying tributes in the ocean to her fallen comrades.
The second one shows happy faces leaving port aboard the ship, a lone portrait of Minnie Hodgson and nurses tending to the wounded.
Minnie Hodgson was born in Perth WA, on 16th August 1908, daughter of John & Contrary Hodgson, later living on the family farm near Yealering. Minnie attended Yealering & West Leederville state schools & completed her secondary education at Presbyterian Ladies’ College & Methodist Ladies’ College. She (then 21) began nurse training at the Children’s Hospital (later becoming Princess Margaret Hospital) and then nursed at the King Edward Memorial Hospital. Minnie returned to the country, nursing at various Wheatbelt Hospitals & prior to her enlistment was the Matron at the Kondinin & Districts Hospital.
Minnie was among 65 nurses onboard the SS Vyner Brooke, the last ship carrying evacuees from Singapore, when it was bombed by the Japanese.
About 150 survivors, including 22 nurses, washed up on Bangka Island.
Despite surrendering to the Japanese, the men were shot and bayoneted, and the women were forced to wade into the sea, where they were then shot from behind.
Only one nurse, Vivian Bullwinkel, survived the massacre. Shot through the hip, she feigned death and floated on the tide. Though Vivian spent the next three years interned in a POW camp, she lived to tell the tale. The only reason we know what happened on Radji beach that day is because she survived.
Of the 65 Australian Army nurses on that fateful Vyner Brooke ship, only 24 returned home to Australia. There were five Western Australian nurses on the Vyner Brooke; one drowned at sea, the other four were killed at Radji beach including Minnie Ivy Hodgson, aged just 33 years.
Minnie has no known grave. However, she is commemorated at the Kranji War Memorial at the War Cemetery in Singapore and at memorials at the Australia War Memorial, King’s Park, Banka Island and at Bicton.
Source: Shakey Murals