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
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
- White Coolies, Betty Jeffrey, Eden Paperbacks, Sydney, 1954 ISBN 0-207-16107-0
References
- ^ 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.
- ^ "About | ANMC". Retrieved 1 November 2023.
- ^ "White Coolies Radio Series". Retrieved 19 October 2011.
Further reading
- Shaw, Ian W. (2010). On Radji Beach. Sydney, NSW: Pan Macmillan Australia. ISBN 978-1-4050-4024-2. OCLC 610570783.}
- Biography of Betty Jeffrey
- "Betty Jeffrey". The Times. London. 5 October 2000. Retrieved 13 October 2009.
- Hutchinson, Garrie (2005). Eyewitness: Australians write from the front-line. Black Inc. p. 165. ISBN 978-1-86395-166-1. Retrieved 13 October 2009.
- Kizilos, Kathy (30 September 1981). "Prisoners of time survive as friends". The Age. p. 24. Archived from the original on 6 March 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2009.
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