THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING Bundaberg & District You are invited to join us at the Terrace , Bundaberg Services Ex Servicewomen’s Association Club, 17 Quay Street, for refreshments.

75th Anniversary of the sinking of The members of Bundaberg & District Ex Servicewomen’s Association wish to thank the supporters of the Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the loss of Australian Centaur on 14 May 1943

Lieutenant Commander Reg Rayner, SOOPS Australian Naval Cadets Bundaberg Regional Council Bundaberg RSL Sub Branch Burnett Heads Progress & Sports Association Rotary Club of Bundaberg Sunrise Mrs Jan Thomas OAM 2/3 A.H.S. Centaur Association A.H.S Centaur Dr Madonna Grehan RN RM, Gr.Dip Hlth Eth, PhD (Melbourne) And all contributors who are named within this program Service of Remembrance

9.30 am Monday 14 May 2018 War Nurses Memorial Park, Bundaberg

PROGRAM

Bundaberg & District Ex Servicewomen’s Association Tribute C75

Service of Remem-

brance—75th Anniversary, sinking of

AHS Centaur MC: Ms Jennifer Waldron, President, Bundaberg & Dist. Ex Servicewomen's Assn. PADRE: Chaplain Ray Nutley Ret.

0925 Please take your seats Welcome and Introduction—Ms Jennifer Wal-

dron Prayer of Remembrance—Chaplain Nutley

Prayer for Australian Defence Force—Chaplain Nutley Prayer for Nurses who paid the Supreme Sacri- fice—Lieutenant Colonel Janet Ras-

mussen (Ret) Addresses AHS Centaur: Hon Keith Pitt MP, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister, Federal Member for Hinkler We will remember them…

Survivors: Mayor Jack Dempsey, Bunda- 332 Embarked— berg Regional Council 64 Survived— Sister Ellen Savage GM AANS: Captain 268 Lives Lost Nicole Blackley Embarked Survived AHS Centaur Roll of Honour: President, Bunda- Ships Staff 75 30 berg RSL Sub Branch Army Officers 8 0 Army Nurses 12 1 Laying of Wreaths: (The MC will call out all wreath 2/12 Fd Amb 192 32 layers) Other Army 45 1 Lament: Piper, Arthur Mackenzie, Bunda- From Bundaberg: berg Caledonian Pipe Band Sister Doris Joyce Wyllie Tribute to the Fallen (please stand) NFX138687 Staff Ode Adjunct Associate Professor Fiona Private Mark Harold Cummings Sewell, Executive QX25635 2/12 F Amb Director of Nursing & Midwifery Services, Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service

Last Post Bugler, Cadet Leading Seaman Kieren Baart, T.S Bundaberg Australian Naval Cadets Minute’s Silence “Lest We Forget” Rouse National Anthem Closing Prayer : The Lords Prayer—Chaplain Nutley Benediction:—Chaplain Nutley Thank you and closing remarks:— Ms Jennifer Waldron §

Bundaberg & District Ex Servicewomen’s Association Tribute C75

ilton in Western Victoria. At enlistment, Quirindi in Central NSW, she trained at Rutherford was sister-in-charge of the Newcastle Hospital and was working as a Operating Theatre at Windemere Private Baby Health Centre sister in Tamworth at Hospital in Melbourne and Deputy Ma- enlistment. Savage was attached to Con-

tron there. cord Hospital and in 1942 to Oranje. In the sinking of the Centaur, Savage sus- Alice (Ali) O’Donnell was from a large tained multiple injuries and burns, yet family at Myrtleford in Victoria. After a The Nurses on the Centaur within three months, she was back at career in the ES&A Bank, O’Donnell work at Concord where she continued Dr Madonna Grehan trained at the Melbourne Hospital in her until 1946. Savage was awarded the Reprinted from 2.3 A.H.S Centaur Associa- late twenties and became private oper- George Medal for ‘conspicuous gallantry’ tion newsletter with the kind permission of ating theatre sister to Sir Allan Newton, a in the aftermath of Centaur’s sinking. author, Dr Grehan and Association Secre- surgeon whose speciality was the thyroid After the war, she accepted a scholarship tary Jan Thomas OAM. gland. Four of O’Donnell’s brothers were to study nursing administration overseas. in the military. Twelve Australian Army Nursing Service On her return to , Savage joined nurses (AANS) were an integral part of Jenny Walker, at 24 years, was the the administrative staff at Newcastle Hos- the personnel of the 2/3 Australian Hospi- youngest of the Centaur’s nurses. Also a pital as Matron of Rankin Park, the hospi- tal Ship Centaur. Seven had served on 1 graduate of the Royal Melbourne Hospital tal’s chest unit. and a veteran of Oranje, she was de- Netherlands Military Hospital Ship Oran- The shock and outpouring of grief at the scribed as rebellious, witty and immense- je, during 1941 and 1942, retrieving inva- deaths of the nurses was profound in ly sociable. lided Australian, New Zealand and British Australia and overseas. The deceased soldiers from the Middle East. With the Five of the nurses were from NSW; Cyn- nurses were and continue to be, remem- deaths of eleven of the Centaur’s nursing thia Haultain, Evelyn (Eva) King, Myrle bered. officers, more than 100 years of nursing (Moss) Moston, Edna Shaw and Ellen In May 1943 a public subscription cam- skill and experience was lost with them. Savage. Haultain, King and Savage were paign called the Centaur Fund was veterans of Oranje and good friends. Major (Sarah) Anne Jewell was Matron of launched to provide an education and Haultain was experienced in respiratory Centaur’s AANS nurses. Born in Perth, recreational centre for nurses, where nursing and operating theatre techniques, Jewell trained and worked in Western nurses could undertake postgraduate particularly for tuberculosis. She had Australia before moving to Melbourne studies without having to go overseas. trained and worked at Sydney’s Infectious where she was the welfare and accident Now known as the Nurses Memorial Cen- Diseases Hospital at Little Bay and then at nurse at the Sunshine Harvester Works tre, this organisation commemorates Cen- a sanatorium in Sydney’s West. Evelyn for seven years. She was greatly respect- taur and other defence nurses every year King, described as unassuming and re- ed by the 1,300 strong staff there. After on the Sunday preceding ANZAC Day. served, was from Darlington Point in the Harvester, Jewell joined a rehabilitation Each year, the Centaur Association sends doctor’s practice in Melbourne. From Riverina. After training and working at a representative to this service. 1940, Jewell served aboard various Sea Cootamundra District Hospital, King had been at Tumut for two years when she WA and SA developed Nurses Memorial Ambulance Transports, on HMT Queen Elizabeth, and Oranje. enlisted. Centres too, providing educational and recreational opportunities. Myrle Moston was born at Trangie in the Jewell’s Deputy Matron on AHS Centaur was Captain Mary Hamilton McFarlane, Central West of NSW. She was a stenog- In Qld in 1948, the Centaur Memorial from Cowell in South Australia. McFarlane rapher before training as a nurse in Syd- Fund for Nurses established a service, was from a military family. Her uncle was ney and was at Bathurst when she enlist- commemorating Centaur’s sinking. It is a Brigadier, her father was an ex- ed. Edna Shaw, from Sydney, trained at held on 14 May each year in . Newcastle Hospital. Shaw was at 102 AGH serviceman and her brother was with the Elsewhere, nursing prizes, sundials and in Tamworth when she enlisted for ser- AIF. Well educated, accomplished in memorial gates underscore the esteem vice overseas. Her two brothers, also, drawing, music, and fluent in French, that families, friends and communities were serving. McFarlane was the first Australian nurse held for the nurses of the Centaur. As a to serve aboard Oranje as a member of Born in Melbourne (Doris) Joyce Wyllie matter of respect and gratitude, other Australia’s liaison Staff. moved to Bundaberg as a young child. sectors of the nursing profession also Another Victorian was Margaret (Marg) She elected to train interstate and stayed acknowledge their forbears who paid the Adams who had trained at the Children’s on the staff of the Sydney Hospital after supreme sacrifice. and Allied Hospitals in Melbourne. Adams completing training there. In 1941, she was working at St George’s Hospital in was attached to Concord Hospital. Wyllie Kew at enlistment. She was keen on out- volunteered for AIF service following the 332 Embarked—64 Survived—268 Lives Lost door activities and known for her warm death of her fiancée in New Guinea on 30 Emb. Surv. August 1942. It came on his first day of Crew 75 30 personality and big smile. Her good Army Officers 8 0 fighting there. friend, Eileen (Nan) Ruther- Army Nurses 12 1 ford was an Alfred Hospital Ellen Savage was the only woman to sur- 2/12 Fld Amb 192 32 trainee, originally from Ham- vive the Centaur’s sinking. Born at Other Army 45 1

Bundaberg & District Ex Servicewomen’s Association Tribute C75

Relatives, Kathleen Dahl, Bel & Allan Shield with RSL President, Jodie Lay

Glenda Everton- Brocklesby and Janet Ras- mussen

Shirley Watson & wreaths

TS Bundaberg Bugler Kieran Baart

Bundaberg & District Ex Servicewomen’s Association Tribute C75