Irene Melville Drummond (1905-1942), army matron, was born on 26
July 1905 at Ashfield, Sydney, daughter of Cedric Drummond, marine engineer,
and his wife Katherine, née Melville, both Queensland born. Educated at
Catholic schools in Adelaide and at Broken Hill, New South Wales, Irene
returned to Adelaide, trained as a nurse at Miss Laurence's Private Hospital,
qualified in obstetrics at the Queen's Home and worked at Angaston Hospital. In
1933 she moved to the Broken Hill and District Hospital where she proved to be
a compassionate and extremely competent nurse, well liked and respected by her
superiors and colleagues. She served as a surgical sister, assistant-matron and
acting-matron.
Appointed sister in the Australian Army Nursing Service,
Australian Imperial Force, on 8 November 1940, Drummond was called up for
full-time duty with the 2nd/4th Casualty Clearing Station in January 1941. Next
month she sailed for Singapore to join the 2nd/9th Field Ambulance. Briefly
back with the 2nd/4th C.C.S., she was promoted matron on 5 August and posted to
the 2nd/13th Australian General Hospital in September. When the Japanese
invaded Malaya on 8 December, the hospital was situated near Johore Bahru. In
January 1942 it was hurriedly moved to St Patrick's School, Singapore. Despite
chaotic conditions—brought on by the hasty retreat, enemy air-raids and increasing
admissions of battle casualties—Drummond's quiet efficiency helped to ensure
that the wards were operational within 48 hours.
By early February 1942 surrender to the Japanese appeared
likely. Throughout January, Major General Gordon Bennett had repeatedly refused to allow the evacuation
of A.A.N.S. personnel. It was not until 10 February that they began leaving,
five days before the capitulation. On the 12th only Drummond, Matron Olive Paschke of the 2nd/10th A.G.H. and sixty-three members
of their staffs remained in Singapore. Although the nurses had begged to be
allowed to stay with their patients, they were put on board the steamer, Vyner Brooke, that day for the
perilous voyage to Australia. On the 14th in Banka Strait the vessel was hit by
bombs. The nurses helped other passengers to abandon ship. Scooping up a small
Chinese boy as the Vyner
Brooke sank, Drummond escaped
in a lifeboat.
A group of survivors, including Drummond and twenty-one fellow
nurses, came ashore at Radji Beach, Banka Island. They were joined by some
twenty British servicemen from another sunken ship. Having discovered that the
island was already in the hands of the Japanese and that no help could be
expected from the local population, on 16 February the party resolved to
surrender. One of the Vyner
Brooke's officers was sent to Muntok to negotiate with the Japanese. While
he was away Drummond suggested that the civilian women and children should
leave for Muntok. Shortly after the civilians departed, a Japanese officer and
twenty soldiers arrived at the beach.
Ignoring pleas that the remaining group was surrendering, the
Japanese separated the men from the women. The men were marched around a small
bluff to another cove; there they were shot and bayoneted. The Japanese
returned to the nurses who had been left sitting on the beach and ordered them
to walk into the sea. All knew their fate as they entered the water in silence.
The Japanese soldiers opened fire with a machine-gun. Irene Drummond was one of
the first to die.
She was mentioned in dispatches in 1946. The Sister Drummond
Memorial Park, opened at Broken Hill hospital in 1949, commemorates her.
Citation
details
Julie Gorrell, 'Drummond,
Irene Melville (1905–1942)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National
Centre of Biography, Australian National University,
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/drummond-irene-melville-10051/text17727,
published first in hardcopy 1996, accessed online 10 July 2017.
This article was first
published in hardcopy in Australian
Dictionary of Biography, Volume 14, (MUP), 1996
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