Vivian Bullwinkel — Survivor of a Massacre

Not an influencer but an inspiration

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Four sisters of the 213th Australian General Hospital

So often in the past, women living insignificant lives are thrust into significant situations, which test their resilience and fortitude. All too often, their stories are filed away as History and forgotten by all but a few. Such is the story of Vivian Bullwinkel.

My initial response when reading about her was to smile at her surname. The cartoon The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle came to mind. It’s one of those surnames, we don’t relish owning, like Longbottom or Nutter.

Of course, Vivian’s story bears no similarities to Rocky’s escapades. As I read about her, I was amazed that she was so unfamiliar. To use the term role model is an understatement. When I consider the influencers and celebrities today, I question why we gather like moths to a flame.

Sister Bullwinkel had been posted with sixty-four other nurses to the 13th Australian General Hospital in Singapore during the Second World War. It was her bad luck to be there when the British Fortress at Singapore was about to fall to the Japanese. With the last 300 to leave the island on the SS Vyner Brooke, more terror was to come when the ship was sighted, bombed and sunk in the Bangka Strait.