Ethel Lane

Today we remember Ethel Lane, one of the war nurses stationed in the Pacific. Ethel recalls caring for the prisoners of war (POWs) at war’s end, a memory that will stay with her forever.

Ethel Lane audio file (MP4 23.86 MB)

Ethel Lane audio script

75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War

Audio actuality

“Fellow Citizens, the War is over” — (The Hon J B Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia)

August the 15th marks the 75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War. Around 1 million Australians enlisted to serve from a population of just 7 million. Australia remembers Ethel Lane, one of our war nurses stationed in the Pacific.

The experience of caring for POWs at war’s end remained seared in her memory.

Ethel Lane

It was pretty distressing — they were so thin, but they were so grateful. Whatever you did for them, they just thanked you so much. And then the most dreadful thing happened — they got their first lot of mail that they had received from home. And a lot of them, their home conditions had changed — families had split up and all sorts of things. And one little boy used to follow me round and say, “Sis, you read this — you read this and tell me what it means.” And I don’t know how many times I had try and explain to him about the break-up of his family back here. And for so many years he had his mind that was home on that corner, and this was where he was coming back. But it wasn’t going to work out that way. We couldn’t do enough for them. I’ll never forget some of those boys.

Saturday, August 15 marks the 75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War. Let’s pay our respects to that amazing generation of Australians.