Design and Art Australia Online

sketcher and nurse, was one of the nurses who flocked to join the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) at the outbreak of World War II. Like many others, she enlisted 'because I thought it the right thing to do’. Recruitment to the AANS was selective and applicants had to be fully qualified nurses with at least three years experience. Recruits had to be single, widowed or divorced without dependants, and between twenty-five and thirty-five years of age. They also had to possess 'good character with personal attributes essential to the making of an efficient member of the AANS’.

Pat Gunther had trained at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. After enlisting in 1940, she spent about four weeks at an army camp hospital at Tamworth before being assigned to the 2/10th Australian General Hospital. On 4 February 1941, fifty-one AANS personnel, including Staff Nurse Gunther, sailed out of Sydney on the Queen Mary bound for Malaya. The nurses saw active service during the siege of Singapore until ordered to evacuate on 12 February 1942. Two days out of Singapore, the small ship they were travelling on was sunk by Japanese bombers. In spite of being unable to swim, Pat Gunther made it ashore to Banka Island.

Together with thirty-two other Australian nurses, she became a prisoner of the Japanese for the remainder of the war. Twenty-four were alive when the camp was liberated on 16 September 1945. On 27 October 1945, after an absence of more than four and a half years, Pat Gunther finally arrived home.

Now Mrs Darling, Pat has never considered herself to be an artist, 'merely someone who dabbles in art and has an interest in the arts generally’.

Writers:

Rensch, Elena

Date written:

1995

Last updated:

2011