[After Proulx had led the troops to safety] Two Scottish Volunteers, too badly wounded to move, were left behind. When the Japanese stormed into the hotel, they immediately lunged for the wounded soldiers with their bayonets - then stopped. A small, white-clad shape stood between them. Sister Elizabeth Mosey, in whose charge the wounded men had been left, was determined that they wouldn't die. And they didn't.
[From Col Ride's Report of 21.8.1942 to the Military Attache, Chungking - an interview with Bishop O'Gara]
"He [Bishop O'Gara] quoted the bravery of an elderly woman who had been a nurse in the last war, and who was in charge of a number of wounded in Repulse Bay Hotel. When our troops left, she remained behind in charge of the wounded and met the Japanese in her unifrom complete with medals. The Japanese commenced their usual practice of ripping the bandages off all the patients but the nurse resisted so strongly and continuously that the Japanese left them alone and my informer [O'Gara] is of the opinion that her brave action, which might well have cost her life, certainly saved the lives of all the wounded."
There are several mentions of Sister Mosey at the Repulse Bay Hotel in the book Prisoner of the Japs:
[...] The Angel of Mercy of the siege was white-haired Elizabeth Mosey, who had served in the last war and had retired to the hotel to do the light nursing that is necessary in such a place. Without her, many wounded soldiers would have died during the siege, for there was no other nurse present to care for them.
[...]
I slipped into the hospital room from time to time to take cigarettes or to talk to the injured if they seemed so inclined. A small room that had been part of the lobby Miss Mosey converted into this emergency ward, and with virtually no supplies had set up a place for the wounded and the dying.
[...]
The ((Japanese)) soldiers, with fixed bayonets, rushed into the hospital. They started for the beds with their bayonets coming down into position. White-haired and frail Nurse Mosey stepped in front of the bayonet points. "You'll have to kill me first before you kill them," she said.
The Japs may not have understood the words, but they understood the gesture. They hesitated a moment, looked beyond at the wounded men, whose eyes were begging for some show of humanity, and back at the determined little lady in front of them, and then they backed away. There was no doubt that these British men owed their lives to the courage and bravery of Miss Mosey. Wounded men in other emergency hospitals weren't so lucky.
Comments
Sister Elizabeth Mosey
[From SCMP of 28.11.1976]
[After Proulx had led the troops to safety] Two Scottish Volunteers, too badly wounded to move, were left behind. When the Japanese stormed into the hotel, they immediately lunged for the wounded soldiers with their bayonets - then stopped. A small, white-clad shape stood between them. Sister Elizabeth Mosey, in whose charge the wounded men had been left, was determined that they wouldn't die. And they didn't.
[From Col Ride's Report of 21.8.1942 to the Military Attache, Chungking - an interview with Bishop O'Gara]
"He [Bishop O'Gara] quoted the bravery of an elderly woman who had been a nurse in the last war, and who was in charge of a number of wounded in Repulse Bay Hotel. When our troops left, she remained behind in charge of the wounded and met the Japanese in her unifrom complete with medals. The Japanese commenced their usual practice of ripping the bandages off all the patients but the nurse resisted so strongly and continuously that the Japanese left them alone and my informer [O'Gara] is of the opinion that her brave action, which might well have cost her life, certainly saved the lives of all the wounded."
Elizabeth Mosey
There are several mentions of Sister Mosey at the Repulse Bay Hotel in the book Prisoner of the Japs:
[...] The Angel of Mercy of the siege was white-haired Elizabeth Mosey, who had served in the last war and had retired to the hotel to do the light nursing that is necessary in such a place. Without her, many wounded soldiers would have died during the siege, for there was no other nurse present to care for them.
[...]
I slipped into the hospital room from time to time to take cigarettes or to talk to the injured if they seemed so inclined. A small room that had been part of the lobby Miss Mosey converted into this emergency ward, and with virtually no supplies had set up a place for the wounded and the dying.
[...]
The ((Japanese)) soldiers, with fixed bayonets, rushed into the hospital. They started for the beds with their bayonets coming down into position. White-haired and frail Nurse Mosey stepped in front of the bayonet points. "You'll have to kill me first before you kill them," she said.
The Japs may not have understood the words, but they understood the gesture. They hesitated a moment, looked beyond at the wounded men, whose eyes were begging for some show of humanity, and back at the determined little lady in front of them, and then they backed away. There was no doubt that these British men owed their lives to the courage and bravery of Miss Mosey. Wounded men in other emergency hospitals weren't so lucky.
[...]
Elizabeth Mosey ??
Could this be her?
Australian Imperial Force 1914
Enlisted for service abroad Elizabeth Mosey age 36 Nurse born Robertstown South
Australia [dob about 1878]
"who had been a nurse in the last war, and who was in charge of a number of wounded in Repulse Bay Hotel"
June 1938 Passenger List Hong Kong to London
Elizabeth Mosey age 60 nursing sister country of last residence Hong Kong c/o Australia House [dob about 1878]
http://anzacsonline.net.au/2012/07/mosey-elizabeth-mbe-arrc/
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P11012789