Barbara Mary Austin was born on 2 August 1920 in Queenstown, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, the youngest of the four children of Edward Neville Lefroy Austin (1873-1924) and Nora Frances Austin née Lawlor (1886-1977). Her elder siblings were Edward Bruce Lefroy Austin (1911-1975), Emily Joan Austin (1914-1968) and Frank Lawlor Wentworth Austin (1918-2001).
She enlisted in the Women's Territorial Service (East Africa) and her service number was K541.
On 6 February 1944 she was on board the S.S. Khedive Ismail, a liner that was being used a troopship. It formed part of Convoy KR-8 that sailed from Kilindini Harbour at Mombasa, Kenya to Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The convoy consisted of five troop transports (Khedive Ismail, City of Paris, Varsova, Ekma & Ellenga), escorted by the heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins and the destroyers HMS Petard and HMS Paladin.
In the early afternoon of Saturday 12 February 1944, a Japanese submarine sank the Khedive Ismail with two torpedoes. No fewer than 1,297 people, including 77 women, lost their lives in the two minutes it took for the Khedive Ismail to sink. Only 208 men and 6 women survived. The sinking was the third worst Allied shipping disaster of World War II and the single worst loss of female service personnel in the history of the Commonwealth of Nations. The gives more details of the action.
She died, aged 23 years. As she has no known grave she is of the East Africa Memorial Kenya, in the Nairobi War Cemetery, Ngong Road, Nairobi, Kenya, and on the .
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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