Gladys Myrtle McDonald (1909 - 1942)

Ancestors

Australian Nurses of the Vyner Brooke

Biography

Gladys Myrtle McDonald was born in 17th July 1909 in Ashgrove, Queensland, Australia. She was the only child of John McDonald and Charlotte Smith. ^[1]

Gladys was a nurse at the Brisbane General Hospital (Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital), Herston, Queensland before the Second World War.

She lost both her parents between the ages of nineteen and thirty years; her mother in 1928 and father in 1939.

On 11th July 1941, Gladys was commissioned in the Australian Army Nursing Service as a Staff Nurse and was posted to the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, based in Malaya. She was promoted to Sister. ^[2] Following the Japanese invasion of Malaya in December 1941 and subsequent Allied withdrawals, the situation looked anything but the supposed Singapore stronghold. Along with 64 other Australian nurses and many civilians, including women and children, Gladys 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]

One of a group of nurses and female civilians holding on to a life raft, Gladys eventually slipped under the surface and drowned. Gladys Myrtle McDonald's name is located at panel 96 in the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, and on the Singapore Memorial, Kranji, Singapore. ^[4] Singapore fell on 15th February, with Australia's entire 8th Division going into captivity.

Gladys' name also appears on several other memorials, namely the ^[5]

• Australian Army Nursing Sisters Monument, Augusta
• Australian Military Nurses Memorial
• Vyner Brooke Tragedy Memorial, Bicton, Western Australia
• Repatriation Hospital Memorial Rose Garden, Heidelberg, Victoria and
• Kapunda Dutton Park Memorial Gardens Nurses Plaque

Sources

1. ↑ Queensland Birth Index #1909/C/3349
2. ↑ Department of Veterans' Affairs nominal roll: QFX22815 Sister Gladys Myrtle McDonald; 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. ↑ Australian War Memorial roll of honour: QFX22815 Sister Gladys Myrtle McDonald; accessed 28 Feb 2020
5. ↑ Virtual War Memorial Australia; accessed 25 Nov 2022