Wilma Elizabeth Forster (Oram) Young AM (1916 - 2001)

Ancestors

Australian Nurses of the Vyner Brooke

Biography

Wilma Elizabeth Forster Oram AM was born on 17th August 1916 at Glenorchy, Victoria, Australia. She was the younger daughter of Alfred Oram and Jane Forster.^[1]

On 12th March 1941 she was commissioned as a sister into the Australian Army Nursing Service and attached to the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, then based in Malaya.^[2]

Along with 64 other Australian nurses and many civilians, including women and children, Wilma 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. Wilma's legs were severely gashed by flying glass caused by one of the explosions. After she entered the sea and grabbed onto a life raft, Wilma received a deep and long gash to her head from debris falling from the sloping ship. After she regained consciousness, Wilma noted that the seawater had cleansed her wounds and stopped the bleeding.^[3]

She became a prisoner of war of the Japanese. She was discharged on 5th July 1946.

She married Alan Young in 1947 at Victoria.^[4] Alan had also been a prisoner of war. They settled on a dairy farm at Cardinia, in Victoria's southern Gippsland, and had four children.^[5]

Aside from her work on the farm, Wilma was an active member of the Returned and Services League of Australia, serving as the treasurer and later president of its Pakenham branch. She worked for causes including greater recognition for Vietnam War veterans and to raise money for the Australian Service Nurses National Memorial, unveiled in Canberra on 2nd October 1999.^[5] Wilma was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on 8th June 1998 for 'service to the welfare of ex-service personnel, particularly ex-servicewomen, and to the community'.^[6]

She passed away on 28th May 2001 at Victoria.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Victoria Birth Index #21315/1916
2. ↑ Department of Veterans' Affairs nominal roll: VFX58783 (V12153) Captain Wilma Elizabeth Forster Oram; accessed 29 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. ↑ Victoria Marriage Index #17920/1947
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Wikipedia: Wilma Oram; accessed 2 Mar 2020
6. ↑ Australian Honours: AM; accessed 2 Mar 2020