Valrie Elizabeth Smith (1912 - 1995)

Ancestors

Australian Nurses of the Vyner Brooke

Biography

Valrie Elizabeth Smith was born on 2nd February 1912 in Wondecla, on North Queensland's Atherton Tableland, Australia. She was the eldest child of Samuel Smith and Ivy Cross. ^[1] The family soon after moved into Herberton, just to the north-west, where Val was educated at the Holy Trinity Sunday School, Herberton Primary School and St Mary’s Church of England Girls School.

Val entered the University of Queensland, studying nursing.

On 29th April 1941 Val was commissioned as a nurse into the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and posted to the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, then deployed to Malaya. ^[2] Along with 64 other Australian nurses and many civilians, including women and children, Val 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, held on Bangka Island and on Sumatra. ^[4] Following her liberation and rehabilitation to Australia, she was discharged from the Australian Imperial Force on 4th April 1946. ^[2]

Valrie's next younger sister, Lillian, served with the AANS during the war, pasing away of illness in June 1945 in Brisbane.

As were most of the surviving nurses Val was Mentioned in Despatches in 1947, for 'services rendered whilst a POW in Japanese hands'. ^[5]

Later, she worked as a Tutor Sister at the Goodna Psychiatric Hospital, Ipswich, Queensland.

Aged 83 years, she passed away on 7th June 1995 in Herberton General Hospital and is buried in Herberton Cemetery. Valrie's name appears on the Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Ballarat, Victoria and on the Vyner Brooke Tragedy Memorial, Bicton, Western Australia.

Sources

1. ↑ Queensland Birth Index #O1665/1927; registered at Cairns
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Department of Veterans' Affairs nominal roll: QFX22819 (Q70251) Lieutenant Valrie Elizabeth Smith; 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. ↑ Australian War Memorial POWs and missing persons: QFX22819 Lieutenant V E Smith; accessed 29 Feb 2020
5. ↑ Australian War Memorial honours and awards; accessed 2 Mar 2020

See also

• 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.
• Virtual War Memorial Australia; accessed 8 Nov 2023.