Submitted by Betty’s son John Argent.
It is with great sadness that I inform the Centaur family of the death of Helen ‘Betty’ Argent, the widow of Pte Jack Argent of the Ship’s Medical Staff. Jack fortunately survived the sinking of AHS Centaur.
It was as a direct result of this enormous tragedy that Mum and Dad first met.
Fate had been setting the stage for this meeting some eighteen months previously. Jack was on the medical staff of 2/1 AHS Manunda which was in Darwin Harbour when the city was bombed. Jack had been on the deck when he was hit by shrapnel. He was moved from staff to patient and taken back to Sydney on the AHS Manunda.
He went to Concord Hospital where he was on light duties till fully recovered when he joined the medical staff of Centaur on 13/03/1943.
Dad was asleep when the torpedo struck and was thrown out of his bunk by the explosion. He grabbed his life jacket from under the bed and headed out. On the way he passed the cabins where most of the nurses were sleeping and injured his shoulder trying to force open doors that were buckled by the explosion.
The fact that he couldn’t save the nurses haunted him for the rest of his life. It must be remembered that as a member of the ship’s medical staff the nurses had been his close colleagues over several voyages, and they were all known to him personally.
Unfortunately, Dad passed away in May 1983 before Professor Milligan’s original thesis or his excellent book with Captain John Foley were published. Dad was sent a pre-thesis survey by Professor Milligan but preferred not to remember such a painful past.
I learnt from them that his efforts to save the nurses would have been in vain, as they were sleeping almost directly above where the torpedo struck.
When Dad passed away his ashes were scattered at sea so he could “be with his mates from the Centaur who were still out there”
Like all the others, Dad was rescued by the US Navy destroyer USS Mugford. On his return to Brisbane he was transferred to Greenslopes Hospital. His wounds were a “grazed right leg” not to mention shock or the loss of all hair follicles below the knee on both legs!!!!! They bred them tough back then.
The very next day he was issued a travel pass for the night train back to Sydney and told to report for duty seven days later.
On the train, what happened on Centaur (plus his experience on AHS Manunda in Darwin Harbour when that city was bombed) took a dreadful toll on his mental and physical state and he broke out in hives all over his body.
This resulted in him being evacuated from the train and taken to the Tamworth Army Hospital (as distinct from the Tamworth Base Hospital)
This is where fate stepped in.
Helen (‘Betty’ to everyone) Robinson was an A.M.W.A.S. Sergeant, acting as the admissions nurse at Tamworth Army Hospital. They took an instant liking for each other.
Even though her name was Helen, she was known to everyone as ‘Betty’. ‘Betty’ was a nickname from “Betty Blue Eyes” and she was called Betty even by her parents since she was only a couple of days old.
Even those who nominated her for an award in the Order of Australia didn’t realise that ‘Betty’ was a nick-name and it appears on the certificate presented to her with her OAM for work with the aboriginal communities of outback South Australia.
Jack went on to serve on Bougainville and two days after he was demobbed in May 1946, they announced their engagement and were married in December that year. Three children, John (1950), Helen (1952) and Phillip (1956) followed.
After Dad’s passing, Mum took an interest in remembering AHS Centaur and its legacy. She attended remembrance services at Concord Hospital in Sydney and various services in Brisbane and Caloundra when she came to visit my family.
Mum and I were at the briefing by David Mearns and the Qld Treasurer Paul Lucas in January 2010 after the discovery of Centaur’s resting place. She also attended the special Memorial Service held at St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane the following March. Mum joined me and my daughter Vanessa, as three generations of direct Centaur family.
Ill health stopped her joining the special memorial service hosted by the RAN over the resting place of AHS Centaur, however I was able to lay a wreath on behalf of the family. She read, with interest, every Centaur Association newsletter right up to the April 2025 one.
Betty Argent died on 14th October 2025 aged 101 and I am confident she was the last surviving spouse of those on board AHS Centaur on 14th May 1943. – John Argent, Son.
