Ellen Mavis (Hannah) Allgrove (1910 - 1994)

Australian Nurses of the Vyner Brooke

Biography

Ellen Mavis Hannah was born on 12th October 1910 at Claremont, Western Australia, Australia. She was a daughter of Charles Hannah and Louisa Malone.^[1]

She began nursing training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1936 and worked in the hospital's Blood Transfusion Unit.

Mavis enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service and was posted to the 2/4th Australian Casualty Clearing Station in Malaya.^[2] Along with 64 other Australian nurses and many civilians, including women and children, Mavis 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]

She became a prisoner of war of the Japanese at Bangka Island. She was discharged on 2nd December 1946.

Mavis married widower, Joseph Allgrove, also a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese, in late 1946 at Malaya. In fact, in 1941 Mavis had been friendly with his first wife, who was killed escaping Singapore in 1942. Joe called her Nell, rather than Mavis. They settled at Segamat, Batu Anam, Johore, Malaya, where Joe had returned to managing the Muar River rubber plantation. Mavis ran the plantation medical clinic.^[4] They had three children, when Mavis had given up hope of childbearing.

The Communist insurgency, known as the Malayan Emergency, made them reconsider their position and they opted to retire to Joe's native land; Dedham, Essex, England. Every ANZAC Day, Mavis travelled into London to the Cenotaph and placed a wreath in remembrance of her comrades. Joseph died there in 1984.

She passed away, aged 83 years, in 1994 at Essex.^[5]

Research Notes

• Marriage location see https://www.malaysia.gov.my/portal/content/30120 for time line of countries name changes In April 1946 become the Malayan Union

Sources

1. ↑ Western Australia Birth Index #288/1910
2. ↑ Department of Veterans' Affairs nominal roll: SFX10595 Lieutenant Ellen Mavis Hannah; accessed 28 Feb 2020
3. ↑ 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
4. ↑ Muntok Peace Museum; accessed 2 Mar 2020
5. ↑ Advertiser death notices