When Sister Philomene Tiernan was a little girl, during World War II, she would sit at the kitchen table and hear talk of her Uncle Pat, who was off flying bombers in Europe.

"Although my childhood memories are fairly sketchy and vague, I still have the sense of the incredible pain of war and what it meant to the families," she recently told southburnett.com.au, the local newspaper in the small Queensland town of Murgon, where she grew up. "It is impressed forever on my heart."

On June 17, 1944, Uncle Pat was flying a mission over Holland when his Halifax MZ 715 bomber was shot down, exploding in mid-air over the town of Dodewaard. His body, together with that of fellow Australian Alfred Burns, was recovered by the town folk, who buried them in their local cemetery.

It was upon returning from a recent family pilgrimage to that cemetery that the plane in which Sister Tiernan was travelling was itself shot down, by suspected pro-Russian rebels, in Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers.

"It's an incredible coincidence, yes," said her sister-in-law, Jillian Tiernan, who was one of 11 family members to take part in the Dodewaard commemorations in May. "After  Dodewaard, she went on to Ireland, England and France, for celebrations with her religious order."

Several members of that order, the congregation of the Sacred Heart, were part of more than 150 mourners who gathered to remember the 75-year-old Sister Tiernan during a special Saturday mass at St Mary Magdalene church, in Rose Bay. Also in attendance were scores of grief-stricken staff and students from Sydney Catholic girls school Kincoppal-Rose Bay, where Sister Tiernan had served as a teacher and boarding mistress for more than 30 years.

"She made school feel like home," said a former boarder, Rachel Fowler. "When you saw her around, she always remembered you; she was always interested in what you were up to."

School principal Hilary Johnston-Croke said Sister Tiernan had "shown love to all out students and staff".

The Tiernan family are something of an institution in Murgon, where they ran the Australian Hotel for 95 years. Sister Tiernan grew up here, but moved away after taking her orders.

"She always stayed in touch with her family, she has always been very involved," said Jillian Tiernan. "She has been a wonderful family member and very devoted aunt to her great nieces and nephews."