Vivian Bullwinkel Award

Scholarship Value

$20,000

About the Scholarship

This award to honour Vivian Bullwinkel, one of the ANMC founders, is generously supported by her nephew Mr John Bullwinkel.

Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel AO MBE ARRC ED (1915–2000) joined the Australian Army Nursing Service in 1941 and was sent to Singapore before it fell to Japanese forces. The Australian nurses were evacuated on the SS Vyner Brooke, which was then bombed by the Japanese. Survivors clambered onto lifeboats, some being lost at sea, and others came to shore at Bangka Island. Vivian was the sole survivor of the subsequent massacre on Radji Beach and survived more than three years of internment in a Japanese prisoner of war camp

Vivian went on to a distinguished career. She became a pioneer in the nursing profession, devoted to improving the welfare and education of nurses. Vivian served on the council of the Australian War Memorial, and later as president of the Australian College of Nursing. She never forgot those local Malaysian women who had fed her and Private Cecil Gordon Kinsley, a soldier survivor of the SS Vyner Brooke. In their honour, she set up a program for women from that region to train as nurses in Australia. Vivian also became Director of Nursing at the prestigious Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital in Melbourne.

Eligibility Criteria

1. You must hold current registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.
2. You must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident.
3. You must be a member of the Australian Nurses Memorial Centre.
4. Your current or proposed course of study must be at a postgraduate level.
5. Your current or proposed course of study must be related to contemporary
   professional practice in nursing or midwifery.
6. You must demonstrate an ongoing commitment to professional practice through two
   or more of the following means:
   • Hold membership of a professional nursing association or special-interest
     group.
   • Contribute to the ongoing development of the team in which you work.
   • Be actively involved in innovation in professional practice.
   • Show recent involvement in research, e.g. through conference presentation/s.
   • Demonstrate a significant degree of community service.
7. You must complete all sections of the scholarship application form.
8. Study must be undertaken in the scholarship year 2026.