Vivian Bullwinkel Vivian Bullwinkel , Mrs . Statham , AO , MBE , ARRC , ED , FNM ( 18 December 1915 – 3 July 2000 ) was an Australian Army nurse during the Second World War . She was the sole survivor of the Banka Island Massacre , when the Japanese killed 21 of her fellow nurses on Radji Beach , Bangka Island ( Indonesia ) on 16 February 1942 . Personal life . She was born as Vivian Bullwinkel on 18 December 1915 in Kapunda , South Australia to George and Eva Bullwinkel ( née Shegog ) . She trained as a nurse and midwife at Broken Hill , New South Wales , and began her nursing career in Hamilton , Victoria , before moving to the Jessie McPherson Hospital in Melbourne . Post - war , she was Matron of Melbourne ' s Fairfield Hospital . Death . She died on 3 July 2000 in Perth , Western Australia as Vivian Statham ( married name , September 1977 ) . World War II and the Banka Island Massacre . In 1941 , wanting to enlist , Bullwinkel volunteered as a nurse with the RAAF but was rejected for having flat feet . She was , however , able to join the Australian Army Nursing Service ; assigned to the 2 / 13th Australian General Hospital ( 2 / 13th AGH ) , in September 1941 she sailed for Singapore . After a few weeks with the 2 / 10th AGH , Bullwinkel rejoined the 13th AGH in Johor Baharu . Japanese troops invaded Malaya in December 1941 and began to advance southwards , winning a series of victories . and , in late January 1942 , forcing the 13th AGH to evacuate to Singapore . But the short - lived defence of the island ended in defeat , and , on 12 February , Bullwinkel and 65 other nurses boarded the SS " Vyner Brooke " to escape the island . Two days later , the ship was sunk by Japanese aircraft . Bullwinkel , 21 other nurses and a large group of men , women , and children made it ashore at Radji Beach on Banka Island . Others on board either went down with the ship or were swept away and never seen again . The group were joined the next day by others making a total of about 100 including about twenty English soldiers from another ship sunk earlier . They elected to surrender to the Japanese . An officer from the " Vyner Brooke " walked to Muntok , a town on the north - west of the island , to contact the Japanese . While he was away Matron Irene Drummond , the most senior of the Australian nurses , suggested that the civilian women and children should start off walking towards Muntok . In an action that later became known as the Banka Island Massacre , Japanese soldiers came and killed the men , then motioned the nurses to wade into the sea . They then machine - gunned the nurses from behind . Bullwinkel was struck by a bullet which passed completely through her body , missing her internal organs , and feigned death until the Japanese soldiers left . She hid with British Army Private Cecil George Kingsley RAOC for 12 days , tending to his severe wounds , only then realizing the extent of her own wound , before being captured . They were taken into captivity , but Private Kingsley died soon after due to his having sustained such serious wounds , including a gunshot wound in his abdomen . Bullwinkel was reunited with survivors of the " Vyner Brooke " . She told them of the massacre , but none spoke of it again until after the war lest it put Bullwinkel , as witness to the massacre , in danger . Bullwinkel spent three and half years in captivity ; she was one of just 24 of the 65 nurses who had been on the " Vyner Brooke " to survive the war . Another surviving nurse was Pat Darling , who died in 2007 . Fellow internees . Whilst in captivity , some notable fellow internees included : Later life . Vivian retired from the army in 1947 and became Director of Nursing at the Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital . She devoted herself to the nursing profession and to honouring those killed on Banka Island , raising funds for a nurses ' memorial and serving on numerous committees , including a period as a member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial , and later president of the Australian College of Nursing . Legacy . The Vivian Bullwinkel Wing at Hollywood Private Hospital , Perth ( the former Repatriation General Hospital , Hollywood ) was renamed in her honour . Monash University ( Melbourne ) has named the chair in palliative care nursing after her . Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE redeveloped the old nurses quarters on its Fairfield campus in 2010 for residential student accommodation . A common room is named after Vivian Bullwinkel , who was the Director of Nursing for many years at the Fairfield Hospital . Family . She married in 1977 , changing her name to Vivian Statham . She returned to Banka Island in 1992 to unveil a shrine to the nurses who had not survived the war . She died of a heart attack on 3 July 2000 , aged 85 . She was a distant cousin of country music singer Kevin Shegog .