White Coolies
Angus & Robertson, 1976. Item #86673
Inscribed and signed by the author. Reprint. Very Good condition.
Betty Jeffrey (1908–2000), formally **Agnes Betty Jeffrey**, was an Australian nurse, prisoner of war, and author best known for her memoir **_White Coolies_ (1954) **. Her writing grew directly out of her experiences as an Australian Army nurse during the Second World War. Australian Dictionary of Biography+1
### Her wartime experience
Jeffrey trained as a nurse at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital and joined the Australian Army Nursing Service. In 1941 she was posted with the **2/10th Australian General Hospital** to Malaya. When Japanese forces advanced toward Singapore in early 1942, she and 64 other Australian nurses were evacuated aboard the **SS Vyner Brooke**. The ship was bombed and sunk, and Jeffrey survived the ordeal before being captured. Australian Dictionary of Biography+1
She spent roughly **three and a half year as a prisoner of war in Japanese camps on Sumatra**. Conditions were extremely harsh, with inadequate food and medicine and widespread disease. When she was liberated in 1945, she was severely ill and weighed only about 32 kilograms. She subsequently spent two years recovering in a Melbourne hospital. Australian Dictionary of Biography
### _White Coolies_
Jeffrey secretly kept a diary during her captivity, despite the danger of being discovered. After the war, she used it as the basis for **_White Coolies_**, published in 1954. The memoir describes the nurses' captivity, their relationships with one another, their efforts to maintain morale, and the deprivation they experienced. It became a bestseller and was repeatedly reprinted. Australian Dictionary of Biography+1
One particularly memorable part of the story concerns the women's **"vocal orchestra."** The prisoners reconstructed music from memory and performed it for one another, giving them a way to maintain morale and a sense of normal life under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Australian War Memorial
### Later influence
Jeffrey and fellow survivor **Vivian Bullwinkel** worked after the war to establish a memorial for Australian military nurses. The **Nurses Memorial Centre in Melbourne** opened in 1950, with Jeffrey serving as its first administrator. Australian Dictionary of Biography+1
Her memoir later helped inspire the 1997 film **_Paradise Road_**, directed by Bruce Beresford, about Australian and other Allied women held captive by the Japanese. Jeffrey served as a historical consultant on the film. ADBonline+1
She was awarded the **Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1987** for her service to nurses and ex-service men and women. She died in Melbourne in September 2000, aged 92. Australian Dictionary of Biography+1.
Price: $100.00