Another story of an Australian Army Nurse, executed by Japanese soldiers on Radji Beach on 16 February 1942.

Sister Mona Margaret Anderson Tait NX 76281 2/13th Australian General Hospital, was born on 6 February 1915 in Booval Queensland and was the daughter of Robert Tait and Maggie Alexandria Tait (nee Ripley).

Her father had been born in Scotland and immigrated to Australia as a young man. She had one sister Auriel Ripley Tait who was born in 1917 and only died in 2005.

Sometime after her sister was born the Tait family of four moved to Newcastle, New South Wales.

Mona Tait trained as a nurse at Cessnock District Hospital which is close to Newcastle. Later, she was the Sister in charge of the X-ray department at Canberra Hospital for three years prior to enlisting in the Australian Army Nursing Service on the 13 January 1941.

For eight months she was attached to Victoria Barracks in Sydney before being sent to Malaya.

As with other nurses in her Unit she left Australia in August 1941 and sailed for Malaya and Singapore on the Hospital Ship Wanganella, arriving on 15 September 1941. 

She was part of the 2/13th Australian General Hospital that was initially located at St Patrick's School on Singapore Island.

Between 21-23 November 1941 the entire hospital was moved across the Straits to Tampoi Hill on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. Due however, to the swift progress of the Japanese invasion force, most of the hospital staff was evacuated back to Singapore in late January 1942.

There is little on the public record about Mona’s life. But it is well known that she was on the SS Vyner Brooke and made it to Radji Beach, presumably on one of the two lifeboats which arrived on the beach and further along the coast.

Mona, aged just 27 years, was murdered by Japanese troops with the other Australian Army nurses at Radji Beach on 16 February 1942.

A memorial to Mona was installed at the Cessnock District Hospital where she trained.

The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder newspaper wrote on 11 October 1946: ‘

”The Secretary (Mr J Brown) informed the Hospital Board that he had received information to the effect that Sister Mona Tait had lost her life in the war against the Japanese.

"Although Sister Tait was not a member of the hospital staff at the time of her enlistment, she had received her training at the institution. Mr. Brown said that from the information he had received, Sister Tait, together with…other nursing Sisters, had been shot by the Japanese…

"Because of the fact that Sister Tait had received her training at the Cessnock Hospital, the Board decided that it would be fitting to pay a tribute to her memory, and towards this end a memorial bed and plaque will be installed in the new maternity ward as a token of remembrance.” 

Mona is also remembered through the RSL Mona Tait and May Hayman Memorial Fund. Income from the fund’s investments is donated to the University of Canberra to purchase books for its nurses Library:

"This Fund commemorates the bravery of two Nursing Sisters, formerly of the Canberra Community Hospital, both of whom were murdered by Japanese troops during World War II.

"Sister Mona Tait was killed on the shores of Banka Island whilst attached to the 8th Australian Division and May Hayman was killed when she was attached to an Anglican Mission in Papua New Guinea.

The Fund was initiated by staff of the old Canberra Hospital but after some time they requested it be transferred to the RSL National Trustees".

Sisters Tait and Hayman were also commemorated by a plaque at Royal Canberra Hospital. When the hospital closed in 1991 the plaque was removed to the RSL Headquarters in Campbell ACT.

The Australian War Memorial has in its collection a letter written by Mona Tait to Anne Burrows in Canberra in February 1942, just before she was killed on Radji Beach.

In the letter she mentions meeting Frank Burrows, Anne's brother, who died tragically as a POW on the Burma-Thai railroad. Like all the victims of Japanese brutality on that terrible day in February 1941, the memory of Mona Tait, a lovely, brave, smiling Australian women, lives on.

Principal Sources

The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder 11/10/46 -
Michael Pether Historian and researcher Auckland New Zealand
Public records
Newspaper reports 
On Radji Beach by Ian Shaw

Credit to Muntok Nurses & Internees Association shared with permission and thanks.