St Catherine's School

Remembering Jenny – The finding of the Centaur Hospital Ship

Sunday 25 April 2010

Sister Jenny Walker Jenny Walker at St Catherine’s in Blair House in the front row, first left. Memorial plaque for Jenny Walker located on the headland at Caloundra north of Brisbane. St Catherine’s students raised the money to pay for this plaque to be placed in the Commemorative Walkway.

Jenny Walker (1919-1943), served in the Australian Army Nursing Service on Hospital Ships, the Oranje and the Centaur. The Centaur was sunk by the Japanese during World War Two taking only three minutes to break apart on 14 May 1943. The wreck was only recently located in 2009 solving a 66 year mystery.

Jenny was at St Catherine's from 1932 to 1935 and was a member of Blair House. In 1935 she completed her Leaving certificate studying English, European History, French, Arithmetic, Geography and Biology.

The Argus Newspaper of the 1930s has a section titled Fashions of the world of women's parties. There are detailed accounts of Jenny hosting parties, attending the races at Moonee Valley and holidays at the family beach house in Sorrento.

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An Argus article titled "Recruits for Nursing" reads:

The nursing profession continues apparently to offer opportunities for interesting careers to members of the younger set in Melbourne. Several daughters of well known families have recently joined the ranks of the trainees at the Royal Melbourne Hospital...Miss Jenny Walker younger daughter of Major and Mrs G.B. Walker of Walsh Street, South Yarra went into training last November...

The Argus Tuesday 14 September, 1937 page 8

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Jenny Walker Sister VFX 72356

Jenny Walker's service record held at the national archives has the briefest details of her service. The first entry documents Jenny enlisting in the Australian Army Nursing Service (A.A.N.S.) on 13 January 1942 and she was detached to 115 General Hospital, Heidelberg. She first served on the first Netherland Military Hospital Ship the ‘Oranje' embarking in Melbourne on 22 January 1942. She was promoted to the rank of Sister on 31 August 1942. From the records of the ‘Oranje' we can see that Jenny went on five voyages picking up the sick and injured from Durban, Aden and Port Twefik. She changed ships and embarked onto the Centaur in Sydney, 8 April 1943.  The Centaur first sailed to Townsville and brought the sick and injured to Brisbane for transfer to Hospital. From Brisbane the Centaur conveyed American and Australian medical personnel to Port Moresby. On the return trip to Brisbane, American and Australian troops were taken on board. The Ship then proceeded to Sydney to prepare for a voyage to Port Moresby to deliver a field ambulance unit and take home injured soldiers. This turned out to be a fateful journey as a torpedo attack from the Japanese sank the ship. The final entry in Jenny's service file is dated 18 May 1943 and notes "Missing believed drowned by enemy action".

The Old Girls' Notes in the School Magazine of 1943 contains the following sad announcement:

We regret to announce the death of Sister Jenny Walker, AANS, who was killed when the hospital ship Centaur was torpedoed by the Japanese. Jenny had been serving in Centaur for about a year, and previous to that was stationed at Heidelberg Military Hospital.

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The lives of those on board were wasted, their families, colleagues and friends left in grief. That is the human cost of warfare. That it happened to non-combative personnel makes such an attack seem more brutal - to care for the sick and wounded is one of the most basic of human instincts and one which we very closely identify with the work of the Australian Army Nursing Service.

G Hunter Payne Centaur Memorial Service, 16 May 1993