Australian Military Forces button worn by Sister Ada Corbett Syer

Sister Syer enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) early in the Second World War and was posted to Singapore with 2/10 AGH (Australian General Hospital). She was aboard the Vyner Brook, which evacuated wounded soldiers from the island in 1942, when it was sunk by the Japanese Army in Banka Strait. She was taken prisoner of war and was not released from a prison camp in Sumatra until 1945. In 1958 she went to Ungarie and subsequently became matron of the hospital there for four years. From 1965 to 1976 she was matron of Leeton Hospital.