Showing results for "abc" in Military & War

Bangka Island, 1942. Australian Army nurse Vivian Bullwinkel was just 26 when Japanese soldiers marched her and her fellow nurses into the shallow waters of a remote beach to be executed. Miraculously, Vivian would be the lone survivor. The Lieutenant-Colonel would also be the first woman to be honoured with a statue at the Australian War Memorial for her extraordinary bravery and service.

Born into a daring, musical family in 1886, Annette Kellerman was a force of nature and made for the stage – her first love – and encouraged to defy social norms from a young age. But after she was diagnosed with rickets as a child she took up swimming for therapy, and soon she became an Australian champion, beating boys, breaking records and astonishing huge crowds by diving from great heights. By 1905, Kellerman was 18 and on her way to England in an attempt to swim the Channel and challenge endurance records in the Thames.