Bullwinkel Scholars Program

Age at death: 27

Sister Mona Tait was born in Booval, Queensland in February 1915. Soon after the birth of her sister Auriel in 1917, the family moved to Newcastle, NSW.

She began training at Cessnock District Hospital in the Hunter Valley, and, once graduated, moved to Canberra. She was the Sister in charge of the x-ray department at Canberra Hospital for three years before she enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service.

She was with the Victoria Barracks in Sydney for eight months before she was sent to Malaya in August 1941. Once she reached Malaya, she was part of the 2/13th Australian General Hospital until the evacuation of Singapore.

Little is known about her private life outside of her work as a nurse, but her writings at the Australian War Memorial show she had a considerate personality. In a letter to a friend in Australia, Sister Tait wrote to mention she had seen her brother. As WWII occurred before phone communications, this letter was to confirm with their family that he was alive.

After her death was confirmed, nursing staff at Canberra Community Hospital began collecting funds for the Mona Tait and May Hayman Memorial Prize, which was awarded to the most successful candidates in the final nursing exams in the ACT. Additional funds were raised for a plaque for the main entrance of the hall, which was moved when the hospital closed in 1991.