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#Post#: 27892--------------------------------------------------
Changi Memories
DIR By: guest416
Date: May 31, 2015, 10:00 pm
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How many of you remember the following from Changi.?
1. The little women in black who squatted on a very low small
wooden stool at the doorways of the barrack blocks.
We called them Sew Sews , they would do all your sewing
requirements for a few cents.
2.The small children who would go from block to block selling
peanuts,measured out in an old round 50 cigarette tin.
And 3. the Bearer (usually Indian) who daily would take all
your washing (dohbi) and return same by the afternoon all
starched
and ready to wear.Also he would make your bed ,sweep your bed
space and keep the block floor all spick and span,all this for a
few dollars a week.
We certainly had a tough time at Changi !!!!
Doug.
#Post#: 27898--------------------------------------------------
Re: Changi Memories
DIR By: Brian Reynard
Date: June 1, 2015, 3:48 am
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--- Quote from: Doug.Wallis link ---
>
> How many of you remember the following from Changi.?
> 1. The little women in black who squatted on a very low small
wooden stool at the doorways of the barrack blocks.
> We called them Sew Sews , they would do all your sewing
requirements for a few cents.
> 2.The small children who would go from block to block selling
peanuts,measured out in an old round 50 cigarette tin.
> And 3. the Bearer (usually Indian) who daily would take all
your washing (dohbi) and return same by the afternoon all
starched
> and ready to wear.Also he would make your bed ,sweep your bed
space and keep the block floor all spick and span,all this for a
few dollars a week.
> We certainly had a tough time at Changi !!!!
> Doug.
>
--- End Quote ---
Doug.. Happy happy Memories Memories.. the items you mentioned
continued well into the late 50s.... will add to this an old
chinese lady who used to go round the blocks selling fruit, she
had the nickname Mad Mary... folk lore was that in the Japanese
Occupation, this same lady used to provide fresh fruit to POWs
at Changi... if this proved to be the case, then the nickname
Mad Mary was so undeserved.. she must have been a hero to many
#Post#: 27901--------------------------------------------------
Re: Changi Memories
DIR By: Wolf
Date: June 1, 2015, 4:57 am
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Brian the lady you refered to as Mad Mary was actually called
Mary Tan OBE, the decoration was presented to her for supplying
fruit to the POW's in Changi jail during the Japanese
occupation. I got to know her well when I spent a week in Changi
on my way to Labuan. The swimming pool at Changi was salt water
and there was nothing better when you got out to see the large
pieces of pineapple that Mary used to sell for 10c a slice.
Found
this:
HTML http://s100.photobucket.com/user/Mercury103/media/Changi12.jpg.html
HTML http://s100.photobucket.com/user/Mercury103/media/Changi12.jpg.html
#Post#: 27903--------------------------------------------------
Re: Changi Memories
DIR By: Brian Reynard
Date: June 1, 2015, 6:27 am
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--- Quote from: Nigel Woodger link ---
>
> Brian the lady you refered to as Mad Mary was actually called
Mary Tan OBE, the decoration was presented to her for supplying
fruit to the POW's in Changi jail during the Japanese
occupation. I got to know her well when I spent a week in Changi
on my way to Labuan. The swimming pool at Changi was salt water
and there was nothing better when you got out to see the large
pieces of pineapple that Mary used to sell for 10c a slice.
>
> Found
this:
HTML http://s100.photobucket.com/user/Mercury103/media/Changi12.jpg.html
HTML http://s100.photobucket.com/user/Mercury103/media/Changi12.jpg.html
>
--- End Quote ---
Nigel thank you for that snippet, seems what I refer to as
folklore is more aligned to factual events performed by a very
heroic lady.
#Post#: 28378--------------------------------------------------
Re: Changi Memories
DIR By: cpentith
Date: June 17, 2015, 8:43 am
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I was not in the Mob in those days, but the reference to Mad
Mary was unkind , I wonder if that was her cover against the Jap
B******, ? a hero of course, thanks Nigel for completeing the
story, My Dad was in Changi in 1944.
CJP
#Post#: 28392--------------------------------------------------
Re: Changi Memories
DIR By: Wolf
Date: June 17, 2015, 2:20 pm
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The story of Mary Tan has another snippet. Those that got her
supplies of fruit whilst in Changi always said she deserved a
much higher decoration for what she did for the prisoners.
Unfortunately Mary didn't have much English and 80% of that was
swear words, the powers that be thought the George Cross should
have been her award, but that needs to be presented by royalty,
so it was decided that she should receive an OBE which could be
presented by the then Ambassador of the colony.
Shame. She was allowed to wander anywhere she liked on Changi
camp. She was arrested once by a new snowdrop and taken to the
guardroom after being found in one of the hangars, Mary was
released immediately on reaching the guardroom and the snowdrop
got a bollocking he would never forget.
#Post#: 28395--------------------------------------------------
Re: Changi Memories
DIR By: Bill Reid
Date: June 17, 2015, 5:37 pm
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--- Quote from: Nigel Woodger link ---
>
> The story of Mary Tan has another snippet. Those that got her
supplies of fruit whilst in Changi always said she deserved a
much higher decoration for what she did for the prisoners.
>
> Unfortunately Mary didn't have much English and 80% of that
was swear words, the powers that be thought the George Cross
should have been her award, but that needs to be presented by
royalty, so it was decided that she should receive an OBE which
could be presented by the then Ambassador of the colony.
>
> Shame. She was allowed to wander anywhere she liked on Changi
camp. She was arrested once by a new snowdrop and taken to the
guardroom after being found in one of the hangars, Mary was
released immediately on reaching the guardroom and the snowdrop
got a bollocking he would never forget.
>
--- End Quote ---
Served him right, he should have learnt his knowledge before
being let loose to create alarm an despondency everywhere he was
not wanted.
#Post#: 28400--------------------------------------------------
Re: Changi Memories
DIR By: steve beddoe
Date: June 18, 2015, 12:52 am
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Now sited at The National Memorial Arboretum
[URL=
HTML http://s1186.photobucket.com/user/beddoe4/media/today%20003_zpsnkvzlj0f.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z367/beddoe4/today%20003_zpsnkvzlj0f.jpg[/img][/URL]
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