The Singapore Ships

Context

By the 31st of January 1942 all British Empire forces had withdrawn from the Malay peninsula on to Singapore Island. On the 8th of February 1942 Japanese forces landed in the north-west of the island, and within six days they had had advanced as far as the outskirts of Singapore City. At this point the city was under constant air attack.

British Army nurses had been stationed at the Alexandra Military Hospital on Singapore Island, and in General Hospitals supporting the troops on the Malay peninsula as well as on Singapore island. On the 11th February the decision was made by the military higher command to evacuate all civilian and military nurses, along with other women and children, to avoid their capture by the Japanese. The majority of the British Army nurses left Singapore on two ships; the SS Kuala, and the SS Tanjong Pinang.

Presentation

This is a video from the Massive Open Online Course "Researching British Army Nurses" and it makes reference to the course and the participants, so do not be confused by that! The Vimeo video stream should be clever enough to detect the type of video stream you need for your device. If you do have difficulties with watching the video please contact me.

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Web-based Research

As this is WW2 there are as yet no official records we can access to learn more about the nurses leaving Singapore in 1942. We need to look elsewhere for information and then build it into the story.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Since we know many of the nurses died we can look to find them in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) records. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Links to an external site. honours the 1,700,000 men and women of the forces of the Commonwealth who died in the two world wars and ensures that their memory is never forgotten. They are the organisation that cares for cemeteries and memorials at 23,000 locations in 154 countries. Their values and aims, laid out in 1917, are as relevant now as they were almost 100 years ago.

The Commission's principles:

• Each of the dead should be commemorated by name on the headstone or memorial
• Headstones and memorials should be permanent
• Headstones should be uniform
• There should be no distinction made on account of military or civil rank, race or creed

They also keep an online database which is searchable. You can search by name where known, but if as in this case you want to find any nurses commemorated in Singapore for WW2 you can just search for WW2 and Singapore. You will get a list of everyone commemorated which you can download as a spreadsheet and then filter for the nurses. Some of the nurses who died on the ships are commemorated elsewhere, for example, Indonesia, and so you need to understand something about the action you are researching to get the most out of the CWGC records.

One example of the nurses commemorated in Indonesia is Sister Mary Cooper. The CWGC has this information:

• Rank: Sister
• Service No: 206892
• Date of Death: 26/06/1945
• Age: 27
• Regiment/Service: Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service
• Grave Reference: 6. H. 8.
• Cemetery: JAKARTA WAR CEMETERY
• Additional Information: Daughter of Patrick William and Ethel May Cooper, of Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan, Republic of Ireland.

Children and Families of the Far East Prisoners of War 1941-1945 (COFEPOW)

There are many groups with special interests who publish information on the web. One of these is the COFEPOW site. The members of COFEPOW are the war babies and siblings of many thousands of men who died on the Thai/Burma railway, the Sumatra railway, the Sandakan Death Marches, in copper mines in Formosa, steel factories in Japan, building roads in Burma, air strips on Ambon, Haruka, Java, Rabaul, New Guinea and the Solomons. Many of the Far East prisoners were civilian internees and their story is also remembered. OFEPOW has undertaken a lot of research to identify those who died in the Singapore ships, and it is their SS Kuala and SS Tanjong Penang lists that form the mainstay of this story. The lists can be downloaded from their site.

The list they have put together for the SS Kuala has this entry for Sister Mary Cooper:

COOPER – Miss M. Cooper, QAIMNSR, Alexander Hospital, Singapore

• "… seen on island by members of QAIMNSR. Evacuated on “TP” .Not since heard of…” (Evans);
• Sister Mary Cooper, QAINMS , later survived the sinking of the “TP” after getting on a raft, but died in an internment camp in Muntok (Wingate);
• she is also mentioned in Phyllis Brigg’s dairy as having joined them in captivity “The only other QA with us was an Irish Girl, Mary Cooper, whose hands were badly lacerated from sliding down the ship’s rope into the sea before getting onto a raft (not clear whether this means the “Kuala’ or the “TP", also Mary Cooper died in June 1945 after ill-treatment after being put in Gaol whilst an internee (PBD);
• survived sinking of “TP’ but interned at Palembang and died of typhoid in 1945 (IWMDM)

You can see this is an amalgamation of many different sources, e.g..: Evans = report by Sister Margaret A. Evans, QAIMNS, in May 1942 in India with list of QAIMNS and their fate. Information supported by Miss Bryant, T.A.N.S.; IWMDM = Story of (Nursing Sister) Marjorie de Malmanche lodged at IWM. They leave contradictory accounts so researchers need to see whatever material is available and then make their own conclusions.

Royal College of Nursing Historical Journals

(see previous section on the RCN Historical Journals)

A search of the RCN Historical Journals found this entry for Sister Mary Cooper:

We very sincerely regret to announce the death of Sister M. Cooper Q.A.I.M.N.S.R., previously reported missing, now known to have died from Beri-Beri and Malaria on June 25th, 1945, whilst in captivity in Sumatra. Sister Cooper trained at the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin, from 1935 to 1939, and was enrolled as a Sister in Q.A.I.M.N.S.R., November 20th, 1939. She embarked for services in the Far East September 28th, 1941.

Using Web Resources

From the this example of the story of the nurses on the Singapore Shops we can see how useful the web can be, although you do need to know something to get you started on your search. It is important that you collect and explore any information you find, and that you do not discard contradictory evidence too soon in your search. Remember to document contradictions and gaps in knowledge so that others who might use your information understand where you have got to in your research, and of course always note the sources of your information. When using the web you need to write down the complete reference straight away rather than thinking I will go back and look at this later or another day. The web is dynamic and pages move or are removed and you may never get the full reference if you do not do it there and then (see back to the section on Using Web Resources).