| Rank | Staff Nurse |
| Service Number | SX13431 |
| Unit | 2/13th Australian General Hospital |
| Cause of Death | Executed by Japanese in the Bangka Island massacre |
| Place of Death | Bangka Island, Indonesia |
| Date of Death | 16 February 1942 |
| Age | 29 |
History
Lorna Florence Fairweather was born in Stirling West, South Australia, on 31 January 1913, the daughter of Percival Sidney Howard Fairweather and Florence Annie Fairweather.
Lorna worked as a paediatric nurse at the Somerton Crippled Children’s Home and lived with her parents in Broadview, Adelaide. On 2 July 1941 she was called up for duty in the Australian Army Nursing Service and on 28 August left Adelaide for Melbourne. On 2 September Sister Lorna Fairweather embarked with the 2/13th Australian General Hospital on the Wanganella, bound for Singapore.
On 12 February 1942, three days before the fall of Malaya, Lorna, along with 64 other Australian nurses and over 250 civilian men, women and children, was evacuated from Singapore on the SS Vyner Brooke. The Vyner Brooke was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sunk in Bangka Strait on 14 February 1942.
Of the 65 nurses on board, 12 were lost as sea while 32 survived the sinking and were captured as prisoners of war, of whom eight later died during captivity. Sister Fairweather, aged 30, was one of the remaining 22 nurses who also survived the sinking and were washed ashore on Radji Beach, Bangka Island, where they surrendered to the Japanese, along with 25 British soldiers.
On 16 February 1942 the group was massacred. The soldiers were bayoneted and the nurses were ordered to march into the sea where they were shot. Only Sister Vivian Bullwinkel and a British soldier, Private Cecil Gordon Kinsley, survived the massacre. Both were taken as prisoners of war, but only Sister Bullwinkel survived the war.
Source: Virtual War Memorial Australia.