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Twenty-one Australian Army nurses who survived a sinking ship only to be murdered on an Indonesian beach will be remembered through prayer and music at Sydney Town Hall on 8 November.

Catholic arts organisation Artes Christi will present Mozart’s Requiem – A Candlelit Tribute to Our Military Nurses, bringing together an 80-strong choir and orchestra ahead of Remembrance Day.

Presented in support of the Australian Remembrance Foundation, the commemoration will honour the nurses killed in the Bangka Island massacre, alongside military nurses across generations, including those serving today.

Organisers are seeking Defence approval for 21 serving military nurses, seven each from Navy, Army and Air Force, to lay 21 wreaths in memory of the women.

A representative of Vivian Bullwinkel’s family is also being invited to participate.

Remembering the Nurses of Bangka Island

On 16 February 1942, Japanese soldiers ordered 22 Australian Army nurses into the sea at Radji Beach on Bangka Island and opened fire. Twenty-one nurses were killed. Bullwinkel, wounded in the shooting, was the only nurse to survive.

The women had fled Singapore aboard the SS Vyner Brooke as Japanese forces advanced.

When Japanese aircraft sank the ship on 14 February, survivors struggled ashore, with some reaching Radji Beach. After surviving the massacre, Bullwinkel hid before being captured and spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner.

Following her return to Australia, she testified at a war crimes tribunal and devoted herself to nursing and preserving the memory of her murdered colleagues.

Finding Hope Through Music in Captivity

Other Australian nurses who survived the sinking endured years of captivity in Japanese camps. Music became one source of consolation for women imprisoned in Sumatra.

Fellow internees Margaret Dryburgh and Norah Chambers established a women’s vocal orchestra, reconstructing classical music from memory and arranging instrumental parts for unaccompanied voices.

Their repertoire included the Largo from Dvořák’s New World Symphony. Amid hunger, illness and confinement, the performances offered prisoners an opportunity to make music together and recall life beyond the camps.

A Candlelit Requiem for the Fallen

The Sydney commemoration will likewise place music at the centre of remembrance, with Mozart’s setting of the Catholic Mass for the Dead performed by candlelight.

The work has particular significance during November, when Catholics traditionally pray for the faithful departed.

For Catholic audiences, the evening will offer an opportunity to unite remembrance of those who died in service with prayer for the repose of their souls.

The Australian Remembrance Foundation, whose patron is former Governor-General General Sir Peter Cosgrove, also presents the annual Anzac Eve Tribute at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt.

Through music, ceremony and personal stories, it seeks to encourage participation in remembrance. The Town Hall performance begins at 5 p.m. on Sunday, 8 November, three days before Remembrance Day.

Tickets start at $40 via Trybooking.

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Republished with thanks to The Catholic Weekly. Image courtesy of Artes Christi.