Description
Object description
Photocopies of extracts from his ts memoirs (42pp), written in 1968, covering his service as a junior Malayan RNVR officer in the converted coastal patrol vessels HMS CIRCE (ca January - August 1940) and HMS TIEN KWANG (August 1940 - May 1941) during their deployment in the Singapore Straits to safeguard Singapore's sea approaches and in the patrol vessels HMS FANLING (ca June - October 1941) and HMS SYLVIA (November - December 1941) on similar duties along the eastern shores of the Malayan States of Johore and Pahang and in the Sedili river, his service in an unidentified ship during the Malayan campaign escorting a convoy from Singapore to Port Swettenham (January 1942) and then in the former Customs launch HMS ROSEMARY evacuating troops by night from Johore to Singapore (January 1942), ROSEMARY's departure from Singapore with an official evacuation party on 13 February 1942 and their interception by a Japanese destroyer in the Banka Straits and his imprisonment in a camp in Muntok, his escape with another naval officer from the camp and the hardships and hazards of their week as evaders in Sumatra until their recapture (late February 1942) and, in very brief outline, his time as a prisoner of war in Palembang, Sumatra (March 1942 - August 1945); together with 15 ms letters to his mother in England containing references to his service in the Malayan RNVR (May 1940 - January 1942) and 2 ms letters to her written from Palembang and Singapore in September 1945 following his liberation outlining his immediate post-war plans; 3 notebooks/commonplace books and some loose folios containing ms poems and essays written by him while a prisoner in Palembang, fair copies of other poems and various lists (including the names of fellow officer prisoners); photocopies of 2 ms letters, dated 1965 and 1986, from Captain P H S Reid RN who had been the Senior British Officer in Palembang; and 10 photographs, most taken in HMS FANLING in October 1941. Fiennes's correspondence and memoirs include some interesting comments on Malaya's unpreparedness for war in 1941.
Content description
Photocopies of extracts from his ts memoirs (42pp), written in 1968, covering his service as a junior Malayan RNVR officer in the converted coastal patrol vessels HMS CIRCE (ca January - August 1940) and HMS TIEN KWANG (August 1940 - May 1941) during their deployment in the Singapore Straits to safeguard Singapore's sea approaches and in the patrol vessels HMS FANLING (ca June - October 1941) and HMS SYLVIA (November - December 1941) on similar duties along the eastern shores of the Malayan States of Johore and Pahang and in the Sedili river, his service in an unidentified ship during the Malayan campaign escorting a convoy from Singapore to Port Swettenham (January 1942) and then in the former Customs launch HMS ROSEMARY evacuating troops by night from Johore to Singapore (January 1942), ROSEMARY's departure from Singapore with an official evacuation party on 13 February 1942 and their interception by a Japanese destroyer in the Banka Straits and his imprisonment in a camp in Muntok, his escape with another naval officer from the camp and the hardships and hazards of their week as evaders in Sumatra until their recapture (late February 1942) and, in very brief outline, his time as a prisoner of war in Palembang, Sumatra (March 1942 - August 1945); together with 15 ms letters to his mother in England containing references to his service in the Malayan RNVR (May 1940 - January 1942) and 2 ms letters to her written from Palembang and Singapore in September 1945 following his liberation outlining his immediate post-war plans; 3 notebooks/commonplace books and some loose folios containing ms poems and essays written by him while a prisoner in Palembang, fair copies of other poems and various lists (including the names of fellow officer prisoners); photocopies of 2 ms letters, dated 1965 and 1986, from Captain P H S Reid RN who had been the Senior British Officer in Palembang; and 10 photographs, most taken in HMS FANLING in October 1941. Fiennes's correspondence and memoirs include some interesting comments on Malaya's unpreparedness for war in 1941.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 2004-10