Ellen Savage and the Heroes of AHS Centaur

By Grantlee Kieza

Published by ABC Books Dist. by Harper Collins

RRP $35.99 in paperback

ISBN 9780733344107

Many readers will be familiar with Grantlee Kieza’s vast body of work, among which is the story of Sister Vivan Bullwinkel, an Australian Army nurse who survived the 1942 Bangka Island Massacre (published in 2024).

With this new book he returns one again to a nurse who displayed extraordinary courage under fire following one of the deadliest wartime attacks in Australian waters – the sinking of the hospital ship, the Centaur.

Just before dawn on 14 May 1943, the Centaur was cruising north from Sydney, to bring home troops wounded fighting the Japanese in New Guinea.

Under the rules of the Hague Convention, all of the Centaur’s lights were shining brightly, clearly displaying the bright red crosses painted on its sides.

But off the coast of Brisbane, a Japanese submarine commander fired a torpedo into the Centaur’s heart.

Many of those on board were killed instantly, and the ship took just three minutes to sink to a watery grave.

Ellen Savage emerging from a whirlpool of fire and burning wreckage was the only woman to survive. For more than 34 hours, she and other survivors did all they could to save other badly injured survivors until rescuers arrived.

Prime Minister John Curtin called the attack ‘barbarous’, and avenging the attack became a rallying cry for the Australian forces.

Ellen Savage was awarded the prestigious George Medal for her remarkable bravery, and 66 years later, some of those she saved would witness the discovery of the Centaur’s wreckage on the ocean floor, bringing some closure to families of the 268 victims of the sinking.

Kieza is a master of the art of combining biography with the history of the key events in his subject’s life.

The sinking of the Centaur has never faded into blurred memory thanks to the efforts of the 2/3 AHS Centaur Association https://centaur.org.au