Saturday, September 11, 2010

AHS Centaur Update

There are not too many articles in Australian papers now about the tragic hospital ship Centaur, but, I did come across this in the August 27th Courier-Mail (Australia). "Centaur Memorial Health Precinct to remind nursing students of World War II sacrifice" by Margaret Wenham.

Pam Gilbert was just 5 and not yet in school when her father, Fred Fortier, was killed in the May 14, 1943, Japanese submarine attack on the Centaur.

Now 72, Gilbert and two other relatives of Centaur's crew attended the opening of the Centaur Memorial Health Precinct, a new $4.5 million facility for training nurses.

She remembers that her mother received the telegram that her husband was dead within hours after a similar one arrived at her grandparents' house saying that her Uncle Alan was dead. Both brothers had been members of the 2nd 12th Field Ambulance contingent aboard the ill-fated Centaur.

The new facility has classrooms, a staff room and state-of-the-art health center. The staff area is named after Sister Savage, the only one of 12 nurses aboard the Centaur to survive the attack.

Still a Very Heart Rending Event. --Cooter

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