Lorna Florence Fairweather (1913 - 1942)

Ancestors

Australian Nurses of the Vyner Brooke

Biography

Lorna Florence Fairweather was born in 31st January 1913 at Stirling, South Australia, Australia.

Lorna completed her training and was registered as a nurse, specialising in paediatrics.

On 2nd July 1941, she was commissioned into the Australian Army Nursing Service and attached to the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, then based in Malaya.^[1] Along with 64 other Australian nurses and many civilians, including women and children, Lorna was evacuated from Singapore on 12th February aboard the ill-fated Vyner Brooke. The ship was discovered by the Japanese as it was entering the Bangka Strait two days later, bombed and strafed repeatedly, and sank in twenty minutes.^[2]

She was murdered by the Japanese on 16th February 1942 at Bangka Island, Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia). Lorna Florence Fairweather's name is located at panel 96 in the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra and at Kranji War Cemetery, Singapore.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Department of Veterans' Affiars nominal roll: https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=676794&c=WW2#R SFX13431 Sister Lorna Florence Fairweather; accessed 29 Feb 2020
2. ↑ Shaw, Ian W. 'On Radji Beach: The Story of the Australian Nurses after the Fall of Singapore'. MacMillan, Sydney, 2010. ISBN 978-1-4050-4024-2
3. ↑ Australian War Memorial roll of honour: SFX13431 Sister Lorna Florence Fairweather; accessed 29 Feb 2020