Jessie Jane (Blanch) Eaton-Lee ARRC (1910 - 1999)

Ancestors

Australian Nurses of the Vyner Brooke

Biography

Jessie Jane Blanch ARRC was born on 18th March 1910 at Bangalow, New South Wales, Australia. She was the eldest daughter of Edwin Blanch and Florence Williams.^[1] The family later moved to the hinterland, to Alstonville, where Jessie's grandfather, William George Blanch, had settled some years earlier.

Jessie completed her nursing training, probably at Lismore District Hospital, and was registered as a nurse. She obtained a nursing position at the Brisbane General Hospital (now the Royal Brisbane Hospital).^[2]

On 17th January 1941, Jessie was commissioned as a nurse in the Australian Army Nursing Service and posted to Malacca, Malaya.^[3] Along with 64 other Australian nurses and many civilians, including women and children, Jessie 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.^[4]

After several hours drifting in the sea, Jessie's life-boat found land at Bangka Island, Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) and made her way to the tin-smeltering town of Muntok. There, she became a prisoner of war of the Japanese; held at Bangka Island and Sumatra until September 1945.^[5] After being repatriated to Australia, she was discharged from the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 27th March 1946.

Jessie was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross in 1947 for 'valuable service attending wounded as a POW at Sumatra'. The presentation was made on 6th December 1949 at Government House Sydney. She was then living at Windemere, 21 Mosman Street, Mosman, New South Wales.^[6]

Aged forty years, Jessie married Albert Eaton-Lee in 1950 at Alstonville, New South Wales.^[7]

Jessie passed away, aged 89 years, on 15th May 1999 at Alstonville, in the hinterland behind Ballina, and is buried in Alstonville Cemetery.^[8]

A second cousin of Jessie's, Jean Blanch Baird was the wife of Reverend Doctor John Flynn, founder of the Australian Inland Mission (AIM) and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Sources

1. ↑ New South Wales Birth Index #13232/1910; registered at Byron Bay
2. ↑ Geoff & Margaret Henderson for Richmond River Historical Society, Lismore; accessed 12 Apr 2020
3. ↑ Department of Veterans' Affairs nominal roll: QFX19074 Nurse Jessie Jane Blanch; accessed 29 Feb 2020
4. ↑ 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
5. ↑ Australian War Memorial POW records: QFX19074 Nurse Jessie Jane Blanch; accessed 1 Mar 2020
6. ↑ Australian War Memorial honours and awards: QFX19074 Nurse Jessie Jane Blanch; accessed 1 Mar 2020
7. ↑ New South Wales Marriage Index #7104/1950; registered at Ballina
8. ↑ Find a Grave: Jessie Jane Eaton-Lee; accessed 1 Mar 2020