Sister Margaret de Mestre Memorial Tablet

This war memorial assemblage consists of a white marble memorial tablet dedicated to the memory of Sister Margaret de Mestre who was killed when the hospital ship HMAS Manuda was bombed in Darwin Harbour on 19 February 1942. She was the first Australian nurse killed in the Second World War. The tablet is mounted on a timber frame made of silky oak and is located in the Bellingen Museum.

The tablet is the focal point of the memorial and is accompanied by a timber plaque for the Manuda, as well as a newspaper article from the Bellinger Courier-Sun, 19 February 1992. 

Margaret De Mestre was born on 16 November 1915 in Bellingen and enlisted on 9 August 1940 in the Australian Army when she lived at Kalang near Bellingen. She had previously trained at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney in 1939. 

In 1940 she enlisted in the Australian Nursing Corp and made two trips to the Middle East on the Manuda. While the ship was being reconditioned in 1941, she served at the 113th Australian General Hospital at Concord. She re-joined the ship in January 1942. Sister De Mestre died on the 2/1 Hospital Ship.

The Daily Examiner (Grafton), 3 August 1944 published details of the unveiling of the tablet in the Kalang Hall on 28 July 1944. A large number of local and visiting people attended the ceremony. Mr H. Stone was chairman and those who attended Mr and Mrs d J. De Mestre (parents), Cr. F.L. Christian (Bellingen Shire Council), Rev. W. Dorin (Boy Scouts), Rev. P. Threfall, Mrs F. Hooker (Red Cross) and Mr J.C. Hillier (Returned Soldiers). Reverend P.F. Tilgham unveiled the tablet. 

The tablet was later moved to the Bellingen Museum when the Kalang Hall was closed.