Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

13/01/1941

Place of Enlistment

Sydney NSW

Gender

Female

Date of Birth

06/02/1915

Place of Birth

Booval, Queensland

Address (at enlistment)

Newcastle NSW (previously Canberra ACT)

Occupation

Nurse

Next of Kin

Daughter of Robert and Maggie Tait of Darby Street, Newcastle NSW

Service Number

NFX76281

Final Rank

Lieutenant

Final Unit

13 Australian General Hospital

Died on 16 February 1942 at Radji Beach, Banka Island, Indonesia aged 27 years.

Memorial plaque, Canberra Hospital, now located at the RSL Headquarters, Constitution Avenue, Campbell ACT

Sr. Tait trained as a nurse at Cessnock and was sister in charge of the X-ray department at Canberra Hospital for three years prior to enlisting in January 1941. She was attached to Victoria Barracks for eight months before being sent to Malaya where she nursed with the 13th Australian General Hospital at Malacca and Singapore. She was among the last 65 Australian nurses evacuated from Singapore on the SS Vyner Brooke on 12 February 1942. The Vyner Brooke was sunk by the Japanese off Banka Island and some of the survivors attempted to arrange a surrender while the others remained on Radji Beach. Japanese soldiers arrived at the beach and after bayoneting the men forced the remaining 22 Australian nurses and one British civilian to wade into the sea where they were shot from behind. Sr. Tait was killed; only Sr. Vivian Bullwinkel survived.

Sr. Tait and Sr. May Hayman (a missionary nurse who was killed by the Japanese at Gona, New Guinea in 1942) were commemorated by a plaque at Royal Canberra Hospital. When the hospital closed in 1991 the plaque was removed to the RSL Headquarters in Campbell. The Mona Tait and May Hayman Memorial Prizes were awarded annually to the most successful candidates in the final nursing exams. The AWM has in its collection a letter written by Sr. Tait to Anne Burrows in Canberra in February 1942 where she mentions meeting Frank Burrows, Anne's brother, who died as a POW on the Burma-Thai railroad.

Arthur Ide, Royal Canberra Hospital: The First 40 Years, 1994
WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
AWM Collections Record : PR01561, P02783_035
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'Dangerous Seas', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial
The Canberra Times - 1 July 1944, 10 September 1949