Naval Association to hold ceremony for AHS Centaur
A message from the Naval Association of Australia
All those who served on the Australian Hospital Ship (AHS) Centaur and other hospital ships during the Second will be recognised at a commemorative ceremony on Thursday 30 August. It will take place at 10.30am for 11am at the Jack Tar Memorial, Southbank, Brisbane, next to the Ship Inn. The ceremony will be led by Ms Julie Finucane OAM, President of the Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses.
Before dawn on 14 May 1943, the Centaur was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off North Stradbroke Island. On board were 74 civilian crew, 53 Australian Army Medical Corps personnel, 12 female nurses from the Australian Army Nursing Service, 192 soldiers from the 2/12th Field Ambulance, and one Torres Strait ship pilot.
Of the 332 aboard, all but 64 drowned, including 11 of the 12 nurses. The survivors were discovered 36 hours later. The one surviving nurse was Ellen Savage. The incident resulted in public outrage as attacking a hospital ship is a war crime under the 1907 Hague Convention of which Japan was a signatory.
Australian forces from the Army, Navy and Merchant Navy and civilians served on six hospital ships during the war. Various non-Australian ships, including three Dutch vessels, were closely associated with Australian troops and campaigns in the region.
The wreck of Centaur was found on 20 December 2009 and a memorial to the ship was built at Caloundra, the nearest mainland point to the wreck. A mosaic depicting the Centaur was installed in the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial.
