Description
Object description
Ms memoir (74pp, mostly written in India in 1944 - 1945), covering her flight from Malaya and Singapore during the Japanese advance with her young daughter Ann, and her life as an evacuee in India (1941-1945), giving good insights into her feelings and experiences, including her reaction to the news of the mobilisation of the Volunteer Forces (which included her husband), giving a glimpse of their life as rubber planters, describing the preparations on the estate for the Japanese invasion, her journey to Kuala Lumpur via Taiping by car, bus and train (which was hindered by blackout conditions and storms), noting the kindness of the people she met, her experiences of air-raids in Kuala Lumpur and their domestic shelter arrangements, her train journey to Singapore (Christmas 1941), the struggle to obtain an emergency passport, air-raids and shelter arrangements in Singapore, her reunion with her husband while staying with acquaintances in Johore, his suffering with Malaria, securing passage to India from Singapore (for her and Ann only), describing the sea voyage to Bombay and the train journey to the Himalayas, life at the British Evacuee Home, the constant worry for those left behind, her role there as a Welfare Officer helping the Indian doctor, Dr Caleb, her decision to leave because of a Japanese woman, the difficulty in finding work in Bombay, particularly while having childcare responsibilities, working at the Bombay Government Hostels, and mentioning her return to England (September 1945) where she later received the news that Tony had been killed four years previously; together with related documents including a ts letter of introduction (December 1941), a ts letter from her bank in Singapore (January 1942), an Affidavit regarding her allowance in India (June 1942), a ts letter from her regarding sending a message to her husband (whom she assumed to be a POW) through the All India Radio Messages Service to report her safe in India (March 1944), an official ts letter informing A Crosbie Hill's father of his death (December 1945), a certificate of death and printed letter from the King, a ms letter from her husband (possibly his last to her) written after she left Singapore (undated, with envelope), 2 newspaper cuttings relating to her husband's funeral, and 19 photographs of her family and the funeral of her husband (1940 - 1946). Anthony Crosbie-Hill, a volunteer with the 1st (Perak) Battalion, Federated Malay States Volunteer Force (FMSVF), was killed during the Fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942.
Content description
Ms memoir (74pp, mostly written in India in 1944 - 1945), covering her flight from Malaya and Singapore during the Japanese advance with her young daughter Ann, and her life as an evacuee in India (1941-1945), giving good insights into her feelings and experiences, including her reaction to the news of the mobilisation of the Volunteer Forces (which included her husband), giving a glimpse of their life as rubber planters, describing the preparations on the estate for the Japanese invasion, her journey to Kuala Lumpur via Taiping by car, bus and train (which was hindered by blackout conditions and storms), noting the kindness of the people she met, her experiences of air-raids in Kuala Lumpur and their domestic shelter arrangements, her train journey to Singapore (Christmas 1941), the struggle to obtain an emergency passport, air-raids and shelter arrangements in Singapore, her reunion with her husband while staying with acquaintances in Johore, his suffering with Malaria, securing passage to India from Singapore (for her and Ann only), describing the sea voyage to Bombay and the train journey to the Himalayas, life at the British Evacuee Home, the constant worry for those left behind, her role there as a Welfare Officer helping the Indian doctor, Dr Caleb, her decision to leave because of a Japanese woman, the difficulty in finding work in Bombay, particularly while having childcare responsibilities, working at the Bombay Government Hostels, and mentioning her return to England (September 1945) where she later received the news that Tony had been killed four years previously; together with related documents including a ts letter of introduction (December 1941), a ts letter from her bank in Singapore (January 1942), an Affidavit regarding her allowance in India (June 1942), a ts letter from her regarding sending a message to her husband (whom she assumed to be a POW) through the All India Radio Messages Service to report her safe in India (March 1944), an official ts letter informing A Crosbie Hill's father of his death (December 1945), a certificate of death and printed letter from the King, a ms letter from her husband (possibly his last to her) written after she left Singapore (undated, with envelope), 2 newspaper cuttings relating to her husband's funeral, and 19 photographs of her family and the funeral of her husband (1940 - 1946). Anthony Crosbie-Hill, a volunteer with the 1st (Perak) Battalion, Federated Malay States Volunteer Force (FMSVF), was killed during the Fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942.
History note
Cataloguer MLA