Escape from Singapore — 2a. A View from England

Background

This introduction is taken from the following sections of
1. My Childhood Escape : Background, The Evacuation, Back with the Family in England.

My father Robert Piriam N. (“Piri”) Napper was a Plant Pathologist at the Rubber Research Institute in Kuala Lumpur. In the 1930s he revolutionised the treatment of diseases in rubber plantations. My sister Rosemary was born in 1934, I was born in 1937, but our mother Maude never recovered from my birth, and died six months later. On the way back from leave in the U.K. in 1939 Piri met and fell in love with a Dutch nurse, Suzanna (“Suze”) Balfoort, who was returning home by boat from Holland to Batavia (now Jakarta in Indonesia). They were married the next year. In the intervening period we were looked after by a young Malay Indian girl, Martha.

The Japanese invaded Malaya, in the North, on December 8th 1941, the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbour¹. They worked their way towards Singapore, taking Penang by December 18th, and K.L. by January 11th. Our family evacuated K.L. by car, moving to Singapore. Our father had volunteered for the MAS (Medical Auxiliary Service) in K.L. (before the invasion), and offered his services to the MAS again in Singapore. Our step-mother, being a trained nurse, also offered her services.

Women and children were evacuated from Singapore in the troop ships which had brought in reinforcements for the defence of Malaya. As our step-mother knew no-one in England, and was so clearly required in Singapore, she elected to stay on. This was possible because the wife of a close friend, Freda Stanleigh, travelling with her daughter Hazel and her unmarried sister G.E.M. (“Gem”) Davis, volunteered to look after us on the boat, and deliver us to our paternal grandparents in England.

We travelled in the "Empress of Japan", which sailed on January 31st, a fortnight before the Fall of Singapore (Feb 15th 1942).

Our father and stepmother escaped on February 13th, but were lost the next day. It was not till after the war that it was established that they were almost certainly killed or drowned when their boats were bombed.

We went to stay with our grandparents, Granddad Napper, aged about 70, and Grandma, 65, in a small village near Bristol. They had originally retired to a one-acre plot, which my grandfather populated with apple trees, vegetables, tomatoes, chickens and a small garden. However they subsequently built a smaller bungalow in the grounds and their other child, Rowena (“Ena”), moved in to the original bungalow with her husband Felix and children John and Pat. Our cousins were aged 9 and 7 respectively at the start of 1942; we were 7 and 4.

Aunty Ena's husband worked for a Bristol shipbuilding firm, and the house was given the luxury of a telephone for use as an emergency out-of-hours contact number for any of their ships (by radio-telephone). Sadly, and by a dreadful coincidence, Felix died suddenly of meningitis on December 7th 1941, the day which contained the attack on Pearl Harbour and the invasion of Malaya.

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My sister and I have a large collection of letters sent from Malaya by our parents to their parents over ten years. These stopped two weeks before the invasion, so we have no record of our flight from K.L. But we do have letters written by Grandma Napper to our (maternal) Grandma Hough in Manchester.

Below are given extracts from three letters written in January and February. In the companion page (2b) are two letters written in April after we arrived at her home.

I hope these give some insight into the lives of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events.

I have annotated the letters using square brackets, either to give some explanation, or to summarise material that has been omitted.

Letter sent Jan. 15th 1942

As I promised I’d write should I hear any news of our dear ones, here goes. On Wed. last week an announcement was sent out on the 6 p.m. Radio News bulletin to this effect: Anyone having relatives or friends in Malaya could write to the Association of British Malaya, London S.W.1 for news of them. Well on Sunday last I wrote there & sent a stamped addressed envelope for a reply, which I received back this morning from “The Malayan Information Agency”, Malaya House, 57, Trafalgar Square, W.C.2 informing us that Piri had been evacuated from K.L. to Singapore. This is how the message reads:

“We understand from the London Office of the R.R.I. that Mr Napper has been evacuated to Singapore, but the cable did not mention families, but presume they are all together.”

[ ... She had met a friend in the village Post Office who had heard the announcement and had taken down the address.] I waited a couple more days to make sure K.L. had fallen before getting over-anxious. So on Sunday I wrote & am glad to have got this message through. What the Authorities will do next with them all I can’t say, but I am none too anxious for them to have to stay in Singapore. Perhaps they’ll pack them off to Australia or send them home. We must still wait & watch & pray & hope that all will be well, but if they are called upon to give their lives we still must try not to mourn too deeply, but feel that God knows what is best for us & trust them & ourselves into His loving Hands & care & still keep on thanking Him for all His many blessings to us, & go bravely forward trying to help to bear each other’s burdens. I always feel there are many hundreds who are much worse off than we have ever been.

It is but natural that I cannot help but wonder, & I know dear you do just the same (for just you & I share equally that concern for those 2 darling kiddies). I sometimes dare not think of how our little Rosemary must shudder when she hears all the terrible noise of the aeroplanes & gunfiring. Brian I feel perhaps is not quite so nervy. Then I think of Piri’s lovely home & garden, things too which he & Maude treasured together, being just left for mad hands to desecrate. I then have to pull myself away from all those thoughts & thank God that so far they are safe.

[Final paragraph gives bits of home family news and best wishes.]

Telegram sent Feb. 2nd from Piri

At Singapore all well Freda bringing children England

Letter sent Feb. 10th

[ ... Thankyou for letter] I hope you received my telegram [relaying above telegram] yesterday morning. It was sent from Singapore on the 2nd of Feb, so it took a week to get through. I feel certain the children had already left & were on the way home before Piri sent the wire off. You will know that Freda is Mrs Stanleigh. It was strange that all the time since the Japs got into Malaya I have felt that Piri would send the children home with her. No doubt her sister [Gem] will be with her. Mr Stanleigh is in the volunteers so it is not likely he can come away. I felt too that Piri & Suze would have to stay behind as they both belong to the Malay Ambulance Service [Medical Auxiliary Service in fact], & are A.R.P. workers more or less. The Government will greatly need their services I expect. I can only think that Mrs Stanleigh will have been given instructions as to what to do with the children, & we may get letters soon to that effect. All we know now is that the children are coming to England & we pray that they will both have a safe & not too dangerous a passage, & not be too long getting home.

At the moment we don’t know what to think about Singapore. It seems more than probable that it will fall. [ ... Minor business.] I haven’t written to Piri & Suze for weeks now. I feel it is not much good. I’d like to have cabled him yesterday, but I can’t seem to make my mind up to do it, as the Japs are now in Singapore. One feels it is useless, & yet I want him to know we’ve had the news. We got a letter yesterday morning from them written while they were at Fraser’s Hill [in November], so I am glad they did get their holiday in before all this strain & sadness they will have had to endure since Dec 7th.

Letter sent Feb 22nd :

We have heard nothing since the cable direct from the children. I shall write again soon to Malaya House Trafalgar Square, if we get nothing from Piri. We have reason to believe that he has sent money out of Malaya to London. [ ... Complicated story about a wire to his bank that had got misaddressed.] The telegram was dated February 12th. So we feel sure Piri & Suze were well on the 12th& that they were then on the point of leaving Singapore, which fell on the 15th. How they got away, or to where they have gone, we can’t say, but I somehow have a feeling they are still safe, & that in due time we shall get a letter or another wire giving other details. I should like to have got a wire through to him some 3 weeks ago. I made inquiries through a friend, & got a message back from the Colonial Office in London on Feb 9th to the effect that no precise information as to how many people had left Singapore or to their names could they give at present, but all who had gone were advised before they left to write to their relatives on arrival at destination. They didn’t think it was any use to send a wire along then. [ ... Have asked another friend in London to enquire at Colonial Office if he happened to pass by(!)]

I wonder what has happened to Martha poor girl. She learnt her 1st blacking out business here & how she loathed it. [Martha came with us on leave to England in 1939, and was here at the beginning of the war.]

[ ... Thanks for sending phone number -- Ena's given at top of letter -- Promise to ring if any news of Piri & Suze.] I feel sure they were both more or less kept in Singapore after the children went to help with the sick & wounded while there were any hopes of saving the Island. & now I wonder if they have been sent either to Java, Sumatra or Australia to carry on the A.R.P. & 1st Aid work. There is no need for me to say how much I hope that they too are on their way home, & that they will arrive safely some time.

But, I can still leave them both & also the children in God’s care. He can & will spread His wings around them wherever they may be, & if their work on Earth is done, I know He will have taken them Home to be with Him. But, I feel they both have a mission yet on this Earth, like you & I have dear, & we shall have strength given us still to do whatever God still has for us to do.

[Final paragraph is a quick run down on the health of everyone at home and next door.]

¹ The Japanese made surprise attacks on a number of places around the West Pacific on the same morning, but the date for Pearl Harbour is December 7th, as it is the other side of the date line.

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