Above left: Betty Matthews in her Australian Air Force uniform in 1944.Above: Betty Matthews shared her 21st birthday with VP Day 60 years ago.By Rebecca Fraser
FOR Betty Matthews, 15 August 1945 holds a doubly special significance – it was the day on which she celebrated her 21st birthday and also the end of World War II.
This week, 81yearold Mrs Matthews, a former nurse with the Australian Air Force, recalled exactly where she was on Victory Day 60 years ago.
“I was standing waiting to get inside a shop in Randwick Sydney to buy some cakes for my birthday party when people started running down the street yelling the war is over, the war is over.
“I remember everyone racing around the streets and jumping on the trams and dancing and yelling everyone was very happy,” she said.
Mrs Matthews and her late husband Robert signed up for the Air Force and Army respectively at the beginning of World War II, even marrying in their uniforms some 60 years ago.
The couple met at a dance at St Kilda Town Hall and spent their honeymoon at the nearby Esplanade Hotel before Robert went off with the army.
Mrs Matthews, who has lived in Doveton for the past 40 years, said one of the hardest parts of the war was being separated from her husband.
“We got married and then he (Robert) had to go off straight away.
“I moved to Sydney and was living with my inlaws at the time because we had no where else to go.
“No one had any money back then with the war,” she said.
Mrs Matthews was pregnant with the first of her three children at her 21st birthday party, and said the news that the war was over made it a very special and memorable celebration.
“It was a great time and we were all very happy.
“Everything was finally finished with.
“I don’t think anyone liked war so everyone was excited it was over.
“You would not be normal would you if you liked war,” she said.
The grandmother of seven and greatgrandmother of seven said she helped with nursing duties at Sydney hospitals while the other nurses went overseas and to Darwin to treat the soldiers.
Mrs Matthews and husband Robert’s service to their country was recognised many years ago by the Dandenong RSL with the presentation of the Silver Star.
She now resides at the Viewhills Manor nursing home in Endeavour Hills and also recalled with some fondness the American troops who docked in Sydney during the war.
“All the girls not just the nurses but the ordinary girls too liked the Americans.
“They brought us nylon stockings and chocolates and all sorts of different things compared to the boys back home.
“A couple of my friends got engaged and married some of the Americans.
“They were all very charming and knew they had to show the girls a good time.
“You weren’t allowed to ask where all of the things were coming from though.
“You did not ask questions in those days. Everything was kept a secret,” she said.
