Clarice Halligan

Clarice Halligan (1904–1942) was an Australian nurse, missionary, Australian Army Nurse and prisoner of war during World War II. She was killed in the Bangka Island Massacre on 16 February 1942.

Early years
Clarice Isobel Halligan was born in Ballarat, Victoria on the 17 September 1904. The daughter of Joseph Patrick Halligan and Emily Watson Chalmers, Halilgan had seven brothers and sisters.

Career
Halligan trained at The Melbourne Hospital and Women's Hospital Melbourne. She worked for three and a half years at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

In 1934 she travelled to Papua New Guinea as a missionary, landing in Port Moresby on 31 July, 1934.

On 11 July 1940 Halligan enlisted at the A.A.M.C. Depot in Melbourne for the Australian Army Nursing Service. On 20 December 1940 Halligan joined the 2nd/13th Australian General Hospital serving in Malacca, Malaysia and Singapore following the Japanese advancement. In February 1942, Halligan was evacuated from Singapore on the SS Vyner Brooke with the Australia Army Nurses. Together with the 65 Australian nurses and over 250 civilian men, women and children evacuated on the Vyner Brooke from Singapore three days before the fall of Malaya. She was injured when the ship was bombed by Japanese torpedoes and sunk in Bangka Strait on 14 February 1942 leaving 22 nurses stranded on Bangka Island. The nurses who survived the sinking were taken Prisoner of War by the Japanese along with 25 British soldiers. On 16 February 1942 the group was massacred, the soldiers were bayoneted and the nurses were ordered to march into the sea at Radji Beach where they were shot.

Awards and honours
Halligan was honoured at the Last Post ceremony on 9 February 2020 at the Australian War Memorial. Her memorial is in the Singapore Memorial within Kranji War Cemetery, Augusta Australian Army Nursing Sisters Monument, Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial in Ballarat and Australian Military Nurses Memorial.

Personal life
Halligan died on Radji Beach, Muntok Island (now in Indonesia) on 16 February 1942, aged 37 years.