Clarice Halligan

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Clarice Halligan (1904–1942) was an Australian nurse and missionary who served in the Australian Army Nursing Service during World War II. She is remembered for her bravery after being captured by the Japanese.

Early life
- Born 17 September 1904 in Ballarat, Victoria.
- Daughter of Joseph Patrick Halligan and Emily Watson Chalmers; she had seven siblings.
- Trained as a nurse at The Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Women’s Hospital, then worked at Royal Melbourne Hospital for about three and a half years.
- In 1934 she traveled to Papua New Guinea as a missionary, arriving in Port Moresby on 31 July.

Second World War
- Enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service at the Australian Army Medical Corps Depot in Melbourne on 11 July 1940.
- Joined the 2/13th Australian General Hospital on 20 December 1940, serving in Malacca, Malaysia, and Singapore after the Japanese advance.

Prisoner and death
- In February 1942 she was evacuated from Singapore on the Vyner Brooke. After the ship was torpedoed and sunk in the Bangka Strait on 14 February, Halligan and 21 other nurses were stranded on Bangka Island and taken as prisoners of war by the Japanese.
- On 16 February the group was massacred; the nurses were forced to march into the sea at Radji Beach and were shot. Halligan was 37.

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

See also
- Vivian Bullwinkel, the sole surviving nurse of the Bangka Island massacre.