“There was this terrific blast and I just flew up in the air and down again and then I don’t remember more about the raid.”[1]
- Capt. Lorraine Blow,
recounting the Japanese
bombing of Darwin in February 1942
Embedded Files
Margaret Augusta de Mestre (1915 – 1942)
Image courtesy of Virtual War Memorial Australia
Sister Margaret de Mestre was born in Kalang (near Bellingen) on the mid-north coast of NSW on 16th November 1915 to Alice Isobel (nee Morey) and James Augustus de Mestre – the first of six children. Raised on her parents’ dairy farm along with her younger siblings, Margaret reveled in the clean air and horse riding of the country climate. At the age of nineteen, she decidedly followed in the footsteps of her aunt Sister Sarah Melanie de Mestre by enrolling at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital to train as a nurse. (Her aunt Sarah had served as a Matron on the Grantala liner during the First World War. Margaret’s younger sisters, Evelyn and Helen, would also later join the nursing profession working at the Bellingen Dictrict Hospital).[2] After her graduation there, Sister de Mestre later worked briefly with the Prince Henry Hospital in Little Bay NSW. However, as with the next generation of army nurses, the younger Sister de Mestre also enlisted with the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) extolling the rank of Staff Nurse in the next world war on 9th August 1940 (Army No. NX70211). That same day, she was detached to the 113th Australian General Hospital (AGH) onboard the newly-commissioned hospital ship liner HMAHS Manunda – Australia’s first hospital ship of the Second World War.[3]
Sister Margaret de Mestre (third from left) aboard the 2/1st Australian Hospital Ship Manunda in 1941.
From left to right: Lt. Alyson Manning Mills, Lt. Joan Holland Somerville, and Capt. Lorraine Stewart Blow.
From left to right: Lt. Alyson Manning Mills, Lt. Joan Holland Somerville, and Capt. Lorraine Stewart Blow.
Image and description courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.
It was led by its Commanding Officer, the eminent Sydney physician, Lt. Col. J. Beith and the ship’s Master, Capt. James Garden. Manunda’s first voyage was a “shake down” – a trial run for the ship and its crew.[4] As with all nursing staff, Sister de Mestre’s first duties, with assistance of the orderlies, were simply to prepare for the potential influx of patients requiring care and general cleaning and tidying up. The ship departed Sydney Harbour on 17th August before arriving in Darwin nine days later. Her first run was relatively uneventful for its nursing crew with very few patients requiring hospital admission back to Sydney. However, the ship’s first major test was its voyage to the Middle East and it left Sydney again on 14th October 1940. This time, emergency drills came into regular practice with the crew now learning to scurry for their life jackets and tin helmets before being required to line up at the required assembly boat station.[5] As the Manunda passed by the Great Australian Bight, the crew took part in the ship’s traditional first Sunday Church service by singing the ceremonial hymn:
Eternal Father, strong to save
Whose arm doth bind the restless wave,
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.[6]
Upon its arrival in the Middle East, for the Manunda it was a relatively low-key affair. AGH Medical facilities were established both in Gaza and El Kantara. However, its main purpose was to navigate the elaborate routes of the Suez Canal, as was required of all maritime vessels, especially since German Luftwaffe planes had recently laid mines within its waters.[7]
Soldiers and nurses from 2/1st Australian Hospital Ship Manunda, Standing in front of the Mosque of Omar, in Jerusalem, Palestine, 1st February 1941.
Image and description courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.
Throughout 1941, Sister de Mestre was subsequently seconded to the 113th AGH at Concord, whilst the Manunda was being repaired. Later on 6th January 1942, she rejoined 2/1st AGH back onboard the Manunda this time departing Darling Harbour at 0800 hours the next day before arriving back in Darwin at 1715 hours on 14th January.[8] For its crew, the next five weeks consisted mainly of undertaking its regular routine duties, such as practicing evacuations drills, visiting military hospitals ashore, and even the occasional social engagement.[9] However, momentous and tragic events were yet to unfold. Sister de Mestre and her fellow nursing staff were now attending to wounded American GIs brought in from the Philippines and had begun witnessing the continued build-up of various naval vessels offshore, amidst the circulating rumours of a Japanese assault in Malaya. On 15th February 1942, the stunning, disquieting news came through that the ‘impregnable’ Singapore fortress had fallen.
Nurses onboard the HMAHS Manunda in 1942
Image and description courtesy of the Australian War Memorial
Nursing Sisters Lounge on the HMAHS Manunda, August 1940
Image and description courtesy of the Australian War Memorial
Further tragedy continued to strike only four days later when Darwin was bombed by the Japanese Air Force.[10] As the onslaught began that morning, Sister de Mestre and Staff Nurse Lorraine Blow were already onboard the Manunda ready for the expected onrush of patients requiring immediate medical treatment.[11] Although the air-raid alarm was sounded at 9:58am, no general alarm was occurred prior to that, despite warnings provided from the islands of Bathurst and Melville of a contingent of unidentified planes approaching Darwin. As a result, the Japanese were able to attack the harbour with precision accuracy. The RAAF base, shipping docks, and the town centre were also hit by Japanese bombs with eight ships altogether sunk and twelve damaged. Unfortunately for the Manunda, it had also been anchored into the harbor alongside other naval vessels rendering it extremely vulnerable. The hospital liner eventually received ‘a near miss’ – shrapnel collaterally spraying across her decks. The devastating effect marked seventy-six holes into the hospital ship’s liner plates and another bomb had hit the Band C decks damaging the navigation instruments and resulting in casualties. Of the 200 seriously wounded from the raid, 58 were the hospital crew from the Manunda; and of the 172 overall fatal casualties, 12 were also from the hospital liner – including Sister de Mestre, the shrapnel mortally piercing both her neck and abdomen. (Sister Blow, who was also hit with the same shrapnel, was seriously wounded that required her to spend the next two years in hospital).[12]
The damage to the nurses' quarters of the hospital liner Manunda, after the Japanese air bombing raid on Darwin on 19th February 1942.
Image and description courtesy of the Naval Historical Collection and the Australian War Memorial.
When news was eventually reported of the attack and the subsequent death of Sister Margaret de Mestre, public outrage ensued; her name and picture was widely published, The Sun declaring that, “She has died for Australia.”[13] The Smith’s Weekly publication also subsequently ran one its editorial letters whom did not mince their words. Calling himself “Old George” from Brisbane, he lambasted the official classification of Sister de Mestre’s death as the result of having been ‘killed in action.’ The letter-writer stipulating instead that a more descriptive and perhaps accurate depiction should have been: “Murdered in cold blood by ruthless hounds of Hell, who have no respect for the Red Cross or anything else.”[14]
The Sun newspaper reports the death of Sister Margaret de Mestre after the Darwin bombing. The headline reads, 'She has died for Australia.'
Image courtesy of Trove.
Controversy also swirled as to whether the Manunda had been deliberately targeted by the Japanese. John Barclay, who was Fourth Mate of the hospital liner and was on its bridge at the time of the raid, and was in a perfect position to witness clearly the Japanese bombardment. Moreover, Barclay was able to distinguish between the high-level bombers and the smaller monoplanes acting independently. Providing a Statutory Declaration for the Inquiry at Adelaide, Barclay was absolute in his testimony:
“I hold the opinion that this particular attack on the Manunda was deliberate. My reason is that at the time the closest ship to the Manunda was HMAT Zealandia…it is difficult to believe that [the bomb] could have been aimed at Zealandia or any other target having regard to the fact that it was delivered from such a low level. Furthermore, when the attacking plane passed over our lifeboat the angle at which it was flying indicated that the machine-gun fire could have been directed at that point only at the Manunda.”[15]
Rubbing salt into the wounds for many Australians was how the Japanese propaganda radio, Tokio Rose, proclaimed afterwards that the Japanese Air Force deliberately spared the bombing of any hospital ships based at Darwin that day.[16] Yet, support for this contention was subsequently handed down by the ship’s Officer in Command of Troops of the Manunda, Lt. Col. J. R. Donaldson. In his confidential report the same day of the raid, Col. Donaldson repudiated statements made by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) which had categorically stated that Japan had breached the Geneva Convention as a result of destruction of the Manunda. He cited how two American destroyers in particular – USS William B. Preston and USS Peary – had sandwiched both the Manunda’s port and starboard ends to which he reasoned had put it in direct way of enemy attack.[17] Whilst Col. Donaldson acknowledges that the bomb that struck the Manunda and the subsequent machine-gunning were most likely deliberate, his viewpoint contends that this was simply an isolated part on one or two Japanese dive-bombers “who may have lost their heads”[18] during the excitement of the raid. Thereby, his general overall consensus was that the rest of Japanese airplanes were respectful towards hospital ships and had abstained from further clear opportunities to continue to attack the Manunda.[19] Along with Lt. Cdr. T .F. Roberts, who was Captain of the HMAS Vigilant, both directed their criticism towards the vulnerable position that the Manunda had been placed in by its docking straight into the harbor, stating that the hospital liner should have been moved five miles away at Talc Head.[20] Col. Donaldson, too, made further recommendations that all hospital ships no longer be anchored into harboured ports, and if they do warrant compulsorily detention, then they must instead be allotted, at least, considerably away from other naval vessels.[21]
Sadly, there remains confusion as to the precise whereabouts of Sister de Mestre’s final resting place. Her contemporary War Graves Record Card stipulates that her burial was conducted “in stream off Darwin wharf” at Area 1 at Adelaide River in Northern Territory. The war document neither specifies too whether or not a headstone was erected and if the army went through the required protocol inspections and approval.[22] The Manunda’s official Log Book records Sister de Mestre’s name, along with the rest of the ship’s casualties, were to be buried ashore;[23] the Australian War Graves Commission officially designated, too, that the Manunda crew were indeed buried at sea.[24] However, both the Northern Territory Memorial and the Anzac Memorial in Sydney display their names as to have “no known graves.”[25] Tom Minto, who was the Manunda’s Chief Officer, later submitted a report in the ship’s Log Book. Minto states that after a signal to Naval Control that a launch would leave the ship on the early morning of 20th February nineteen bodies (eleven from the Manunda) were to be landed by six orderlies. “The bodies,” writes Minto, “were laid out on the ground in front of the Naval Signal Station. They were only wrapped in sheets or blankets as they were to be buried.”[26] Since they were unable to contact anyone else on shore, as it was entirely deserted, after a series of constant reporting to Col. Donaldson and further ship inspections resulted in the bodies lying in the tropical sun for up to twelve hours before evening arrived. When they were finally given the go ahead to collect the bodies at 10:30pm for burial at sea, Minto states: “We were told we would not be required to take the bodies as they had been disposed of. I did not ask any further questions.”[27] In 1981, new evidence appeared to emerge. When the Mindil Beach Caravan Park was sold to make way for the newly-constructed Darwin Casino, human remains were discovered within a deep trench. Initially, it was suggested that they were either Indigenous Australians (despite the non-customary way of burial) or Mocassin fisherman.[28] Yet, a compelling suggestion attests that the bodies – though with modern DNA testing still yet to be conducted – could be those attributed from the Darwin raid, including Sister de Mestre. Longtime Darwin resident Henry Lee had subsequently recounted to local newspapers then his recollection of the aftermath of the bombing in 1942:
“The bombing victims were buried at Frances Bay, along Mindil Beach and in a huge bomb hole on the hillside near Darwin Hospital. The bodies were mainly those washed up from sunken ships. Most could not be identified. There was one nursing sister with identity discs who was given a proper burial.”[29] [author’s emphasis]
Since Sister de Mestre was the only nurse killed by the raid at the time, it is unlikely to be anyone else or that Lee was entirely mistaken. Rupert Goodman hypothesises – pending any further historical inquiries – that the bodies may have only been taken out a short distance and not bothered to be weighted, and when they were eventually submitted for sea burial, as a result, they drifted back to shore requiring a further re-burial. Goodman denotes that this scenario, at least, fits with the known information pertaining to the lifeless body of Sister de Mestre.[30]
Commemorative plaque in honour of Sister Margaret de Mestre at the Coast Chapel Nurses War Memorial in Little Bay NSW, next to the Prince Henry Hospital Museum
Image courtesy of Monument Australia
On 29th July 1944, a memorial tablet was unveiled at her hometown at the Kalang Hall (near Bellingen) by its local community delegates commemorating Sister de Mestre’s life and war service.[31] Further commemorations were donated throughout the years and decades: the Nursing Museum installed plaques at both the North Australia Railway at Adelaide River and at top of the cliffs behind the Darwin Cenotaph in Bicentennial Park;[32] a wooden chair was dedicated by the AANS located at the Darwin’s Christ Church Cathedral;[33] in 1992, the Coast Chapel at the Prince Henry Hospital Museum in Little Bay NSW unveiled a memorial on the 53rd anniversary of the Darwin bombing;[34] and the St Margaret’s Anglican Church dedicated sections of their church to her memory – with a White Magnolia tree outside.[35]
Sister Margaret de Mestre was the first AANS nurse to be killed directly as a result of war combat on Australian soil. She was twenty-five.
Footnotes:
Footnotes:
[1] Richard Reid, Page, Courtney, and Robert Pounds, ed., Just wanted to be there: Australian Service Nurses 1899 – 1999. (Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Veteran’s Affairs, 1999): 66; Jan Bassett, Guns and Brooches: Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War. (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992): 154.
[2] “Margaret Augusta DE MESTRE,” Virtual War Memorial Australia, accessed November 25, 2022, https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/625596; “Sister Margaret Augusta De Mestre,” Australian War Memorial, accessed November 25, 2022, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10313152; The Sunday Sun, “She has died for Australia,” Online, March 1, 1942, 3, Trove, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231759737; Coffs Harbour Advocate, “Killed in Action: Bellinger River Nurse,” Online, February 27, 1942, 2, Trove, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/187834514; Jan Bassett, Guns and Brooches: Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War. (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992): 154.
[3] Department of the Interior [II], Central Office – Australian War Memorial and War Graves, Attestation Form; “For Special Forces Raised in Service in Australia or Abroad;” Officer’s Record of Service, Military Record, Sydney. “DE MESTRE MARGARET AUGUSTA: Service No – NX70211: Date of birth – 16 Nov 1915: Place of birth – BELLINGEN NSW: Place of enlistment – PADDINGTON NSW: Next of Kin – DE MESTRE JAMES,” From National Archives of Australia, B883, NX70211, https://www.naa.gov.au/ (accessed November 11, 2022).
[4] Rupert Goodman, Hospital Ships (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2016): 111-112.
[5] Ibid., 112-113.
[6] Ibid., 113.
[7] Ibid., 113-114.
[8] Department of the Interior [II], Central Office – Australian War Memorial and War Graves, Attestation Form; “For Special Forces Raised in Service in Australia or Abroad;” Officer’s Record of Service, Military Record, Sydney, “DE MESTRE MARGARET AUGUSTA: Service No – NX70211: Date of birth – 16 Nov 1915: Place of birth – BELLINGEN NSW: Place of enlistment – PADDINGTON NSW: Next of Kin – DE MESTRE JAMES,” From National Archives of Australia, B883, NX70211, https://www.naa.gov.au/ (accessed November 11, 2022); Rupert Goodman, Hospital Ships, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2016): 117.
[9] Rupert Goodman, Hospital Ships, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2016): 117.
[10] Rupert Goodman, Hospital Ships, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2016): 117.
[11] Richard Reid, Page, Courtney, and Robert Pounds, ed., Just wanted to be there: Australian Service Nurses 1899 – 1999. (Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Veteran’s Affairs, 1999): 65-66; Jan Bassett, Guns and Brooches: Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War. (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992): 154.
[12] Rupert Goodman, Hospital Ships, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2016): 117-119; Jan Bassett, Guns and Brooches: Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War. (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992): 154.
[13] The Sunday Sun, “She has died for Australia,” Online, March 1, 1942, 3, Trove, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231759737.
[14] The Smith’s Weekly, “Ruthless Murder,” Online, March 21, 1942, 12, From Trove, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/234589277 (accessed November 28, 2022).
[15] Rupert Goodman, Hospital Ships, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2016): 122-123.
[16] The West Australian. “Killed in Action: Death of an A.I.F Sister.” Online. March 13, 1942. From Trove.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article187834514 (accessed November 28, 2022).
[17] Rupert Goodman, Hospital Ships, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2016): 120-121.
[18] Ibid., 120.
[19] Ibid., 120-121.
[20] Rupert Goodman, Hospital Ships, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2016): 122.
[21] Ibid., 121; Jan Bassett, Guns and Brooches: Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War. (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992): 154.
[22] Department of the Interior [II], Central Office – Australian War Memorial and War Graves, War Graves Record Card, Military Record, Darwin, “DE MESTRE Margaret Augusta - NX70211 AANS; Year of death - 1942; Cemetery – Adelaide River, NT,” From National Archives of Australia, A8231 9/DE MESTRE MARGARET AUGUSTA, https://www.naa.gov.au/ (accessed November 11, 2022).
[23] Rupert Goodman, Hospital Ships, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2016): 123.
[24] Ibid., 125.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Ibid., 124.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Rupert Goodman, Hospital Ships, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2016): 125.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Ibid., 125-126.
[31] Daily Examiner, “Bellingen: Memorial Tablet Unveiled,” Online. August 3, 1944. From Trove.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article194290712 (accessed November 28, 2022).
[32] “77 years on, Sister de Mestre remembered,” Charles Sturt University, College of Nursing & Midwifery, accessed November 29, 2022, https://www.cdu.edu.au/nursing-midwifery/sister-de-mestre.
[33] Ibid.; “Sister Margaret de Mestre,” Monument Australia, 2022, accessed November 29, 2022, https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/military/display/93107-sister-margaret-de-mestre.
[34] “Sister Margaret de Mestre,” Monument Australia, 2022, accessed November 29, 2022, https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/military/display/115937-sister-margaret-de-mestre.
[35] Janene Carey, “Sister Margaret Augusta De Mestre,” The Macleay Argus, November 9, 2017, (updated November 13, 2017), https://www.macleayargus.com.au/story/5046002/flowers-bloom-for-sister-margarets-birthday/.
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