Sister Gladys Myrtle McDonald, 13th Australian General Hospital, Royal Australian Army Nursing Service
Australian War MemorialToday we remember and pay tribute to Sister Gladys Myrtle McDonald, who died during the Second World War.
Gladys McDonald was born on the 17th of July 1909 in Brisbane to John and Charlotte McDonald. Her father ran a general store and fruit shop.
McDonald’s mother died in 1928, when Gladys was 19 years old. Her father also appears to have died before 1941; she listed her cousin, Mrs Joan March, as her next of kin on her enlistment papers.
McDonald trained as a nurse, and worked as matron at the Texas District Hospital in Queensland, where she was remembered fondly.
When the Second World War broke out, she was working at the Brisbane General Hospital. On the 11th of July 1941, McDonald enlisted in the Citizen Military Force, transferring to the Australian Imperial Force in August, when she was posted to the 13th Australian General Hospital (AGH) of the Australian Army Nursing Service.
In September she embarked with her unit on the hospital ship Wanganella, arriving in Singapore two weeks later. She was variously detached for duty between the 10th AGH, the 13th AGH and the 2/4th Casualty Clearing Station, caring for the wounded and ill on the Malay Peninsula.
McDonald was once again working with the 13th AGH when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in February 1942. Once the fall of Singapore became inevitable, most Australian personnel were evacuated from the island. But nurses of the 13th AGH remained until the 12th of February, when they, too, were evacuated.
McDonald was one of 65 Australian nurses who left Singapore aboard the Vyner Brooke but two days later the ship was bombed by the Japanese and many lives were lost. Some were helped into lifeboats, others clung to rafts. Those who could swim made for the nearby Banka Island.
McDonald managed to climb onto a raft with six other nurses on it. Two, Betty Jeffery and Iole Harper, volunteered to lighten the raft and they swam for the land. The raft, however, was caught in a current and drifted away from the others.
The remaining five nurses, including Gladys McDonald, were never seen again. She was 32 years old.
Christina Zissis, Editor, Military History Section
Sources:
- Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour
- http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/Veteran.aspx?ServiceId=A&VeteranId=21957
- “General notices”, Morning Bulletin, 12 January 1928, p. 1
- Justin Corfield and Robin Corfield, The fall of Singapore, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne, 2012
- Ian W. Shaw, On Radji Beach, Pan MacMillan, Sydney, 2010
