Description
Object description
British civilian planter with Han Yang Plantations, Socfin and Kuala Pergau Estates in Malaya, 1926-1941; officer served with 4th (Pahang) Bn Federated Malay States Volunteer Force in Malaya, 1941-1942; prisoner of war in Changi Camp, Singapore. Malaya and on Burma Thailand Railway, 1942-1945; colonial civil servant served as Development Officer in Kelantan, Federation of Malaya, 1948-1954
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as planter with Han Yang Plantations, Socfin and Kuala Pergau Estates in Malaya, 1926-1941: early interest in Malaya; initial salary and outlays; learning Malay; voyage from GB to Malaya; buying clothes in Singapore; accommodation and servants on Han Yang Plantations; learning Tamil language; joining French company Socfin and difficulties in handing in notice to Han Yang Plantations; passing Tamil language examination; routine of planters life on Socfin estates in Johore; decision to convert to Islam; poor roads; attitude of employers towards marriage; relations with Malays; tiger hunting in jungle.
REEL 2 Continues: memories of Captain Anderson; move to Kuala Pergau Estate in Kelantan, 1933; contracting tropical typhus; decision to recruit Malays to estate; organisation of and relationship with Malay workers; travelling by train; memories of Sultan Ishmal ruler of Kelantan; problem of hygiene amongst Malay workforce; attempts to improve sanitation. Aspects of period as officer with 4th (Pahang) Bn Federated Malay States Volunteer Force in Malaya, 1941-1942: organisation of Malays into volunteer force; taking commission in volunteer force; posting as Seventh Day Adventist and planter in order to spy on Japanese in Thailand, 12/1941; reporting findings to Singapore.
REEL 3 Continues: organising removal of Malay Madhi from country; decision to stay in Malaya; surrender, 2/1942. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Changi Prison Camp, Singapore, Malaya and on Burma-Thailand Railway, 2/1942-8/1945: march to Changi Camp, 2/1942; contracting diphtheria on Burma-Thailand Railway; opinion of Japanese and Korean guards; eating python; organising former Malayan forced labourers in Thailand, 1945. Aspects of period as Development Officer in Kelantan, Federation of Malaya, 1948-1954: role organising aboriginals; work in jungle; attitude towards Independence; application for Malayan citizenship, 1948; opinion that Malaya was his home country; prior recollections of rubber estate management before Second World War; planters determination to continue running estates during Malayan Emergency; relations with Malayan servant.