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Betty Jeffrey

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Betty Jeffrey
Born(1908-05-14)14 May 1908
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Died13 September 2000(2000-09-13) (aged 92)
OccupationNurse
NationalityAustralian

Agnes Betty Jeffrey, OAM (14 May 1908 – 13 September 2000) was an Australian writer who wrote about her Second World War nursing experiences in the book White Coolies.

Life

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Jeffrey was a nurse in the 2/10th Australian General Hospital during World War II; she was taken captive by the Japanese Imperial Army and interned in the Dutch East Indies. While in the Japanese internment camp on Sumatra, Jeffrey joined the female vocal orchestra.[1] Betty Jeffrey was freed and returned home on October 24, 1945.[1]

Jeffrey and Vivian Bullwinkel visited every sizeable hospital in Victoria to raise the money that created the Australian Nurses Memorial Centre. She is noted as a founder together with Edith Hughes-Jones, Wilma Oram and Annie M. Sage.[2] The Melbourne Nurses Memorial Centre opened in 1949 to honour the heroism of nurses.[1]

She later wrote about her experiences in the book White Coolies, which partially inspired the film Paradise Road and the 1955 Australian radio series White Coolies.[3] Margaret Dryburgh, Vivian Bullwinkel and Wilma Oram were fellow internees with Jeffrey.

Works

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  • White Coolies, Betty Jeffrey, Eden Paperbacks, Sydney, 1954 ISBN 0-207-16107-0

References

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  1. ^ a b c Brown, Kellie D. (2020). The Sound of Hope: Music as Solace, Resistance and Salvation During the Holocaust and World War II. McFarland. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-4766-7056-0.
  2. ^ "About | ANMC". Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  3. ^ "White Coolies Radio Series". Retrieved 19 October 2011.

Further reading

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