Sister Annie Merle Trenerry, 13th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service
Australian War MemorialAnnie Trenerry was born on 31 March 1909 in the Moonta Mines district of South Australia to Edward and Ann Trenerry.
Known as “Merle”, she attended school locally before going to Adelaide to study nursing alongside her sister Julia at the Hutt Street Private Hospital. She passed her nursing examinations in 1931 and later gained certificates in infectious diseases and midwifery.
After moving back to Moonta, in 1935 Trenerry was appointed Matron at Moonta Jubilee Hospital. She carried out this role for 18 months before moving to the Eyre Peninsula and joining the District and Bush Nursing Society.
Trenerry enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force on 7 February 1941 as part of the Australian Army Nursing Service. She was attached as a staff nurse to the 13th Australian General Hospital and posted to a camp hospital in Wayville. That September she embarked on the hospital ship Wanganella, arriving with her unit in Singapore.
Trenerry was variously detached for duty between the 13th AGH in Singapore and the 10th AGH in Malaya, where she was working when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
As enemy forces advanced along the peninsula, the nurses of the 10th AGH were forced to withdraw to Singapore and re-join the 13th AGH, the only Australian hospital left in Malaya. Once the fall of Singapore became inevitable most Australian personnel were evacuated from the island. The nurses of the 13th AGH remained until 12 February, before they, too, were evacuated.
Trenerry was one of 65 Australian nurses aboard the Vyner Brooke, which, two days later, was bombed by the Japanese. Many lives were lost. Some survivors were helped into lifeboats, others clung to rafts. Those who could swim made for the nearby Banka Island.
Trenerry managed to climb onto a raft with six other nurses on it. Two, Betty Jeffery and Iole Harper, volunteered to lighten the raft, and swam for land.
The raft was caught in a current and drifted away from the others. The remaining nurses, including Merle Trenerry, were never seen again. She was 32 years old.
Annie Merle Trenerry is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial, and on a plaque dedicated in 1947 in the nurses’ chapel of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Its inscription reads:
“In loving memory of South Australian members of the Australian Army Nursing Service who made the supreme sacrifice (killed by Japanese), World War 1939–1945.”
In 2003, a street in Port Hughes near Moonta was renamed “Trenerry Place” in recognition of the family’s contribution to mining in the area and Merle’s sacrifice.
Christina Zissis, Editor, Military History Section
Image: Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of SFX13419 Sister Annie Merle (Merle) Trenery, 2/13th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service, c.1941
