As presented at the Centaur Last Post Ceremony AWM, Canberra, 14 May, 201
Today we remember Major Llondha Holland, who was killed on 14 May 1943 when the 2/3rd Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the Second World War.
Known as “Dutchie”, Llondha Llenoi Holland was born in Warwick, in south-east Queensland, on 26 October 1898, the son of Thomas and Mary Holland. The boy’s unusual given names of “Llondha” and “Llenoi” were anagrams of his father’s surname “Holland” and his mother’s maiden name “O’Neill.” His father Thomas Holland was a journalist in Warwick. In the early 1900s, he took up a position with the Daily Telegraph and the family moved to Sydney.
Llondha’s older brother John James Holland served in the First World War. He was wounded in action at the age of nineteen and later died in transit to Alexandria where he is buried in Chatby Military and War Memorial Cemetery. He is also listed on the Roll of Honour at the AWM.
Llondha Holland attended Fort Street Boys’ High School on Observatory Hill in Sydney, where he excelled academically. In March 1913 he was awarded a bursary and when he sat his final examinations at the end of the following year he won honours in Latin and German. He began his medical studies at the University of Sydney in 1915.
After graduating in the early 1920s, Llondha Holland became a resident medical officer at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney where he met Dr Lorna Beveridge.
They married on 8 September 1923, at which point the bridegroom was in general practice in Macquarie Street while the bride was practising in Mosman. The couple’s first child, a son, was born in 1925. The Hollands would have three more children, although their youngest died in early childhood.
By the 1930s, Dr Holland was established in an insurance practice in O’Connell Street. Sport was a favourite pastime: he was a member of the Long Reef Golf Club at Collaroy and regularly played cricket for Mosman veterans, serving on the committee of Mosman Cricket Club.
At the age of 42 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in January 1941, embarking for overseas service in April with the rank of captain. On arrival in the Middle East he was attached to various AIF training units before becoming ill for a period in September. In early 1942 he was appointed to the 5th Australian General Hospital before returning to Australia, along with much of the AIF, later in the year. In July Llondha Holland was promoted to major and in February 1943 he was posted to the 2/3rd Australian Hospital Ship Centaur.
The shock and outpouring of grief at the deaths of the nurses was profound in Australia and overseas. The deceased nurses were, and continue to be, remembered.
In May 1943 a public subscription campaign called the Centaur Fund was launched to provide an education and recreational centre for nurses, where nurses could undertake postgraduate studies without having to go overseas. Now known as the Nurses Memorial Centre, this organisation commemorates Centaur and other defence nurses every year on the Sunday preceding ANZAC Day. Each year, the Centaur Association sends a representative to this Service.
WA and SA developed Nurses Memorial Centres too, providing educational and recreational opportunities.
In QLD in 1948, the Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses established a service, commemorating Centaur’s sinking. It is held on 14 May each year in Brisbane.
Elsewhere, nursing prizes, sundials, and memorial gates underscore the esteem that families, friends, and communities held for the nurses of the Centaur. As a matter of respect and gratitude, other sectors of the nursing profession also acknowledge their forbears who paid the supreme sacrifice.