Betty Jeffrey

Agnes Betty Jeffrey, OAM (14 May 1908 – 13 September 2000) was an Australian writer who wrote about her Second World War nursing experiences in the book White Coolies.

Betty Jeffrey
Born	(1908-05-14)14 May 1908 Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Died	13 September 2000(2000-09-13) (aged 92)
Occupation	Nurse
Nationality	Australian

Life

Jeffrey was a nurse in the 2/10th Australian General Hospital during World War II; she was taken captive by the Japanese Imperial Army and interned in the Dutch East Indies. While in the Japanese internment camp on Sumatra, Jeffrey joined the female vocal orchestra.^[1] Betty Jeffrey was freed and returned home on October 24, 1945.^[1]

Jeffrey and Vivian Bullwinkel visited every sizeable hospital in Victoria to raise the money that created the Australian Nurses Memorial Centre. She is noted as a founder together with Edith Hughes-Jones, Wilma Oram and Annie M. Sage.^[2] The Melbourne Nurses Memorial Centre opened in 1949 to honour the heroism of nurses.^[1]

She later wrote about her experiences in the book White Coolies, which partially inspired the film Paradise Road and the 1955 Australian radio series White Coolies.^[3] Margaret Dryburgh, Vivian Bullwinkel and Wilma Oram were fellow internees with Jeffrey.

Works

• White Coolies, Betty Jeffrey, Eden Paperbacks, Sydney, 1954 ISBN 0-207-16107-0

References

1. Brown, Kellie D. (2020). The Sound of Hope: Music as Solace, Resistance and Salvation During the Holocaust and World War II. McFarland. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-4766-7056-0.
2. "About | ANMC". Retrieved 1 November 2023.
3. "White Coolies Radio Series". Retrieved 19 October 2011.

Further reading

• Shaw, Ian W. (2010). On Radji Beach. Sydney, NSW: Pan Macmillan Australia. ISBN 978-1-4050-4024-2. OCLC 610570783.}
• Biography of Betty Jeffrey
• "Betty Jeffrey". The Times. London. 5 October 2000. Archived from the original on 13 October 2008. Retrieved 13 October 2009.
• Hutchinson, Garrie (2005). Eyewitness: Australians write from the front-line. Black Inc. p. 165. ISBN 978-1-86395-166-1. Retrieved 13 October 2009.
• Kizilos, Kathy (30 September 1981). "Prisoners of time survive as friends". The Age. p. 24. Archived from the original on 6 March 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2009.