Honouring Service and Sacrifice

Bangka Day Memorial Service 2025 – 16 February 2025
Each year, the South Australian Women’s Memorial Playing Fields Trust hosts a memorial service dedicated to the nurses who died in the Bangka Island Massacre. We honour the service and sacrifice they made over 80 years ago. This service is the largest memorial dedicated to servicewomen in the Southern Hemisphere. The service includes a special guest speaker, followed by light refreshments.

St Peter’s Woodlands was well represented at this years’ service, with our current School Captain and 2025 Elaine Balfour Ogilvy Memorial Scholarship winner, Charlotte, in attendance to be personally presented with her certificate by President of the SA Women’s Memorial Playing Fields Trust Inc., Helen Fischer. Also in attendance were Mr Paul Mesecke, Community Engagement Manager, and several members of the Old Scholars’ Association, including Eve Balfour Ogilvy with her daughter and granddaughter. The morning featured wonderful addresses by Her Excellency the Honourable Frances Adamson AC, Governor of South Australia, and Air Commodore Dr Andrew Pearce, who spoke on the remarkable life of Lieutenant Colonel Vivienne Bullwinkel AO.

The Elaine Balfour Ogilvy Memorial Scholarship
The Elaine Balfour Ogilvy Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to a Year 5 St Peter’s Woodlands student entering Year 6, through the generosity of the St Peter’s Woodlands Old Scholars’ Association. The scholarship was established in 1944 in memory of Lieutenant Elaine Balfour Ogilvy, AANS, and has since been awarded to 86 deserving recipients. Elaine’s legacy remains an integral part of our school’s history, and at St Peter’s Woodlands, her story continues to be shared with students as part of the curriculum. This ensures that her bravery and sacrifice are never forgotten. This scholarship recognises students who excel in multiple areas from academic effort and achievement, contribution to their school and wider community and knowledge of Elaine Balfour Ogilvy and her legacy, with students currently in Year 5 able to apply for the scholarship later this year.

Article shared by Paul Mesecke, Community and Engagement Manager.