Jeffrey, Agnes (Betty) (1908 - 2000)

Betty Jeffrey was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on 8 June 1987 for service to the welfare of nurses in Victoria and ex-service men and women. Jeffrey was one of the members of the Australian Army Nursing Service who was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in 1942. Incarcerated in Japanese prisoner of war camps for three and a half years, after the war she wrote about the experiences in White Coolies (1954) which was later the basis for the film script Paradise Road (1999). After her return to Melbourne, and spending some time in hospital, Jeffrey and fellow survivor Vivian Bullwinkel travelled throughout Victoria raising funds towards a memorial for military nurses. The Nurses Memorial Centre was opened on 19 February 1950 and Jeffrey was appointed its first administrator. In 1986 she became the Centre’s patron.

Events

1935 - 1938	Completed nursing training at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne
18 February 1941	Arrived in Singapore with the 2/10 Australian General Hospital
9 April 1941	Joined the Australian Army Nursing Service
12 February 1942	Evacuated from Singapore with approximately 300 people on the Vyner Brooke
17 February 1942 - 8 August 1945	Incarcerated in Japanese prisoner of war camps in Sumatra
18 October 1945	Arrived back in Australia
6 November 1946	Discharged from the Australian Army Nursing Service
19 February 1950	Appointed administrator of the Nurses Memorial Centre
1986 - 2000	Patron of the Nurses Memorial Centre

Related Corporate Bodies

• Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) (1903 - 1948)

  Service no: VX53059

  [1941 - 1946]

Related Cultural Artefacts

• Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial

  Service no: VX53059

  [1941 - 1946]

Related People

• Bullwinkel, Vivian (1915 - 2000)

  travelled throughout Victoria, speaking at hospitals to raise funds for a memorial to military nurses

  [1946 - ]

Books

• Jeffrey, Agnes Betty, Matron A.M. Sage ‘Sammie’: A Tribute by Betty Jeffrey, Herald Gravure Printers, Sydney, 1970?, 55 pp. [ Details... ]
• Jeffrey, Betty, White Coolies, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1954, 204 pp. [ Details... ]
• Jeffrey, Betty, [Diary of Sister Betty Jeffrey, Australian nursing sister captured by the Japanese in World War II]., The Sun, Sydney, 1954. [ Details... ]

Online Resources

• Davis John, 'Betty Jeffrey OAM RN', in Views and opinions from St Peter's Eastern Hill, St Peter's Eastern Hill, http://www.stpeters.org.au/views/sermons/davis/JD00jeffrey.shtml. [ Details... ]

See also

• Angell, Barbara, A Woman's war : the exceptional life of Wilma Oram Young, AM, New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd, Sydney, 2003, 328 pp. [ Details... ]
• Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 'Where are the Women in Australian science?', 22 August 2003, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/wisa/wisa.html. [ Details... ]