大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Marian Beck of Reading aided by volunteer for CSVBerkshire, Jim Grufferty.

Memories of Miss M E Beck Malaya in 1941

I was 10 years old in 1941 and lived in Kuala Lumpur in Malaya (now Malaysia) with my parents. Mt father worked for the Federated Malay States Railway
I came home from boarding school in the Cameron Highlands for the Christmas holidays; the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbour and Malaya on 7th December landing on the east coast.
At school we had heard very little about this, the adults were obviously very worried but were constantly reassured by the Government that Malaya would not fall to the Japanese, but I am afraid that they were wrong.

I do not remember Christmas being very gloomy; I suppose that people were trying to carry on as usual. I had my first bicycle for Christmas and was very happy, I didn鈥檛 know that I was to have it for less than a month. I was also given an autograph book and a friend of my parents wrote in it 鈥渕ay this be the worst Christmas you ever have鈥�, I didn鈥檛 really understand it then but certainly did later.

Sometimes when the air raid sirens went off, we would see the Japanese planes coming over in perfect formation, in Kuala Lumpur we had 7 planes to defend us!

I don鈥檛 remember the exact date that we left Kuala Lumpur but I do remember that my father rang my mother at 8.00 am and told her to be ready to leave at midday, we left the house with what clothes we could carry 鈥� I lost my toys, apart from a teddy鈥� and my new bicycle. We went to stay in the club house at a small railway junction called Gemas, it was halfway between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, the clubhouse was crowded with 鈥渞ailway鈥� families, we were there for a week and then as the Japanese were advancing down country we were sent to Singapore.

When we got to Singapore we stayed in the Station Hotel, which was part of the railway terminus. My friend Marie and her mother were not able to get a room at the hotel and lived in railway carriage in the sidings.
My father was still in Kuala Lumpur and of course we were very worried about him.

We had lots of air raids, I can remembers sitting in the air raid shelters waiting for the planes to go over and also my mother throwing me under a bench when there was a loud explosion nearby
We went to look at a Japanese plane that had been shot down, the structure seemed very frail, I had a piece of metal cut from the body of the plane, I was very proud of it.

My father came to Singapore to join us, the island of Singapore was always considered a fortress but we did not know then that all the guns were pointing in the wrong direction. The air raids increased, I remember standing on the balcony in the hotel watching the casualties from an air raid being carried on stretchers through the hotel concourse, I thought it was very interesting鈥ut things got worse there were more raids and the Japanese were advancing up the country quickly.

On the evening of February 5th 1942 we were taken in an army lorry to a
large hall to queue up to get a berth on a ship to take us to England. Only women and children could go, as there was not enough room to take the men as well. We were to leave on the 鈥淒uchess of Bedford鈥�.
On February 7th we went on board, we were only allowed to take as much as we could carry and that was not very much. Soldiers had disembarked the day before and very little had been done in the cabins before we embarked, there were 1500 women and children on board women without children were sleeping on mattresses in the ship鈥檚 hold.

The 鈥淒uchess of Bedford鈥� and the 鈥淓mpress of Japan鈥� were the last two ships to right back to England, the ship had been damaged by bombs falling on the docks the day before we left and we had to put into Batavia
to have the damage repaired. On February 17th we heard that Singapore had fallen, so we only got away 10 days before it fell. My father was interned as a civilian prisoner-of-war for three and a half years coming home in 1945. It was 18 months before we heard that he was alive.

We had quite a few alarms at sea, when the alarm went we had to leave the decks and go below until the danger had passed, we always had to know where our life belts were and which lifeboat we had to collect at, we had a lot of lifeboat drills. One day a lady was asleep on deck and didn鈥檛 hear the alarm, she woke up to see the bombs falling 鈥� they fell on either side of the ship and didn鈥檛 touch it, we were very lucky.
Another time I remember that we saw an empty lifeboat, the ship came alongside it, there were boxes but no people in it, the ships officers said that they were not going to board it as it may be a booby trap and explode if touched.

Due to the fact there was only a basic number of ships staff on board we had to do quite a lot of things for ourselves. I remember queuing up for our meals and sometimes having to go through the galley, where it was very hot, three times because the cooks often put the food on the plate with their hands, this put my mother and her friend 鈥渙ff their food鈥� but it didn鈥檛 worry me, all I was interested in was in the food.

Due to the war the Suez Canal was closed and we had to go all the way round the Cape of Good Hope. We put ashore in Durban for the ship to be fumigated! It must have been a luxury for the adults to stay in a hotel after the cramped and basic conditions as refugees on board ship, all
That I remember is the beach and bathing in the sea. While we were there we were taken to a large clothes store and given warm clothing as we were going into a cold climate and only had thin clothes.

After 9 weeks at sea we came into wartime Britain, with rationing of food and clothing, I remember we were given extra clothing coupons because we had very little to wear.
I started school at the beginning of the Easter term鈥�. a lot had certainly happened to me since I left school for the Christmas holidays!

Three and a half years later my father came home, during that time we had only had four cards from him.
I remember the day he came home, it was several weeks after the war had ended as he came home in a hospital ship. The taxi drew up outside our house, we had been waiting for it to come for what seemed like a long time, Dad was 6 foot tall and weighed 7 stone at that time, so he was very thin and deeply tanned from being in the sun for so many years, he was wearing an Australian 鈥渂ush hat鈥� with the brim trimmed down a bit which looked rather odd, one of the lens in his glasses had shattered but he could see through it. After lots of hugging he came into the house and sat down, our cat which was a large Persian called Monty came in. Dad loved cats but all that Monty did was walk over to him, have a sniff around and then walked out again! But after that whenever my father was about Monty wasn鈥檛 too far away. It is strange that this is my main memory of his homecoming.
The last time that my father had seen my brother, who was at home living with my Aunt and going to Reading School whilst we were in Malaya was when he was in England on leave in 1939, when Alan was not quite 13 years old ,when he came home Alan was a Glider Pilot.

It took a long time for my father to regain his health as he was 53 when he came home, he brought with him a diary that we had kept while he was interned, although he knew it was dangerous to keep one and it had to be hidden from the Japanese, his diary is now in the Imperial War Museum with some of his clothing and 鈥渟ewing kit鈥�, his shorts are more patches than original material.

Marian Beck

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