Nesta Gwyneth Lewis (James) Noy ARRC (1903 - 1984)

Ancestors

Australian Nurses of the Vyner Brooke

Biography

Nesta Gwyneth Lewis James ARRC was born on 5th December 1903 in Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales, United Kingdom. She was the daughter of David James and Eveline Lewis. ^[1]

Her family migrated to Victoria, Australia.

Nesta became a nurse at the Shepparton Base Hospital, Shepparton, Victoria.

On 7th January 1941, Nesta enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service for service during the Second World War. She measured just 150cm (4ft 11in) in her stockinged feet, but apparently made up for that with a beautiful wide and regular smile. ^[2] She was appointed second-in-command to Matron Olive Paschke of the 2/10th Australian General Hospital, established at Malacca, Malaya in 1941. When the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Malaya in December that year, the entire Allied defences were in the firing line of an overwhelming force.

Nesta and 64 other nurses were the last of 130 Australian nurses to flee Singapore before it fell in mid-February 1942. Their escape was aboard the HMS Vyner Brooke, ^[3] Two days later however, after the ship received three direct hits by Japanese aircraft, the Vyner Brooke sunk.

Whilst twelve of the nurses were killed in the sinking and a further twenty-one were murdered by Japanese soldiers in what became known as the Banka Island Massacre, Nesta became a prisoner of war of the Japanese on 14th February 1942. She was the senior nurse of those held in captivity on Sumatra, Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) ^[4] Located by Australian searchers following the war, on 11th September 1945, and repatriated home, Nesta was finally discharged from her military service on 17th October 1946. She was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross in 1946 ^[5] and was Mentioned in Despatches (equivalent to today's Commendation for Gallantry) in 1947. ^[6]

Aged 51 years, Nesta married 58 year-old First World War veteran Alexander Noy in 1955 at Victoria. ^[7] They had no children. Alexander passed away in 1964.

Nesta passed away, aged 80 years, in 1984 at Kew, Victoria. ^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ UK FreeBMD Birth Index Mar qtr 1904, vol 11a, page 1287
2. ↑ Department of Veterans' Affairs nominal roll: VX39347 Captain Nesta Gwyneth James; accessed 27 Feb 2020
3. ↑ angellpro.com.au - The sinking of the "SS Vyner Brooke" A collection of Eye-witness Accounts
4. ↑ Australian War Memorial prisoner of war records; accessed 27 Feb 2020
5. ↑ Australian War Memorial honours and awards: Royal Red Cross (2nd Class); accessed 27 Feb 2020
6. ↑ Australian War Memorial honours and awards: Mentioned in Despatches; accessed 27 Feb 2020
7. ↑ Victoria Marriage Index #6682/1955
8. ↑ Victoria Death Index #3747/1984

Further reading

• 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.