Cecilia May (Delforce) McPhee (1912 - 2011)

Ancestors

Australian Nurses of the Vyner Brooke

Biography

Cecilia May Delforce was born in 7th September 1912 in Augathella, Queensland, Australia. She was the second daughter and youngest of six children of Samuel Delforce and Lydia Ogden.^[1]

Completing her nursing training at Augathella, Cecilia gained appointment at Stanthorpe General Hospital.

Cecilia May Delforce

On 9th October 1940, Cecilia was commissioned as a staff nurse into the Australian Army Nursing Service, based in Brisbane. On 17th January 1941 she was appointed to the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF), meaning that she could serve overseas. In February, she embarked for Malaya where she was posted to the 2/10th Australian General Hospital, then deployed at Johor. Cecilia was with the 2/10th AGH throughout the chaotic withdrawls in December and January as the Japanese advanced and then the defence of Singapore. ^[2] Along with 64 other Australian nurses and many civilians, including women and children, Cecilia 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. ^[3]

Cecilia became a prisoner of war of the Japanese; held at Bangka Island and Palembang, Sumatra. The Japanese regarded the nurses merely as internees, meaning that they did not have to provide rations. The nurses sought ways to earn money with which to earn money; Cecilia using her farming skills of chopping wood.^[4] After being held as a prisoner of war for three-and-a-half years, she was rehabilitated to Australia and then discharged on 9th January 1946.

Cecilia married fellow Palembang prisoner-of-war, Allen McPhee, in 1946 in Wollongong, New South Wales. ^[5] They had two sons.

Cecilia was Mentioned in Despatches, equivalent to today's Commendation for Gallantry, in 1947 for 'services rendered whilst POW in Japanese hands'. ^[6]

The couple retired from Wollongong to Broadbeach Waters, on Queensland's Gold Coast. Here Cecilia passed away, aged 98 years, on 5th November 2011. Her ashes are placed in Allambe Memorial Park, Nerang, Queensland. Cecilia was the last of the Vyner Brooke survivors and asked that no flowers be placed at the funeral, as her friends who died in 1942 did not have flowers. ^[7]