Lot Essay
Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including Central Chancery and Governor of Sarawak forwarding letters for M.B.E. Warrant (the latter dated 21.11.1949); a copy of The Sarawak Gazette announcing the award of the M.B.E. (dated 2.1.1949); two letters from the Office of the Governor of Sarawak, both outlining Investiture details, and a carbon copy of the Programme of Events (all dated November 1949); U.K. Board of Education Teacher's Certificate (dated 1.2.1907), with forwarding letter; Sarawak Education Department, Letter of Appreciation on the recipient's retirement (dated 15.1.1951), and replacement Certificate of Registration from the period July 1949 to April 1952, this last detailing service at St. Mary's School, Kuching and St. Augustine's School, Betong; a wartime letter from the recipient's sister in England, 'I do hope that you you have escaped the air raids. We have not had any here lately, chiefly, I expect, because the Nazis can't spare the planes' (undated); picture postcards of Sir Charles Vyner and the Sultan of Brunei; a photograph of Miss Andrews in Sarawak, with guest, circa 1950; and a newspaper cutting which outlines her wartime experiences under Japanese occupation.
M.B.E. London Gazette 1.1.1949.
Miss Edith Sophie Andrews, M.B.E., whose wartime experiences commenced with a 'difficult walk through the jungle from Betong, on the Saribas River in Sarawak' to Dutch-held Batavia, and finished with a protracted soujourn as a guest of the Imperial Japanese Army at a "Tenko-style" Internment Camp, with a senior and respected member of the Education Establishment in Sarawak both prior to, and after the 1939-45 War. The first months of her internment were relatively trouble free, being passed in a Malay school with other English civilian internees, but, as a contemporary newspaper report illustrates, conditions soon started to deteriorate, not least under the auspices of a new Commandant: 'At first the prisoners were fairly comfortable, but the food supply became shorter and shorter. The Commandant was cruel to some of the women. He would not hesitate to have some of the women slapped across the face. On one occasion, some of the women did something of which he did not approve, so he ordered them to kneel before the Indonesian soldiers to have their heads shaved. Another time he knocked all the bread, which was to have fed about 5000 women, off the cart and kicked it about the streets. Then he ordered the women to bury it in the drains. He also ordered that no food should be given for two days'. Despite such hardships, Miss Andrews survived to see V.J. Day, recuperating with a sister in Australia. She returned to Sarawak as a Headmistress in the 1940s, was awarded the M.B.E. for her services as Principal of St. Mary's Church School in Kuching, and finally retired in 1951.
M.B.E. London Gazette 1.1.1949.
Miss Edith Sophie Andrews, M.B.E., whose wartime experiences commenced with a 'difficult walk through the jungle from Betong, on the Saribas River in Sarawak' to Dutch-held Batavia, and finished with a protracted soujourn as a guest of the Imperial Japanese Army at a "Tenko-style" Internment Camp, with a senior and respected member of the Education Establishment in Sarawak both prior to, and after the 1939-45 War. The first months of her internment were relatively trouble free, being passed in a Malay school with other English civilian internees, but, as a contemporary newspaper report illustrates, conditions soon started to deteriorate, not least under the auspices of a new Commandant: 'At first the prisoners were fairly comfortable, but the food supply became shorter and shorter. The Commandant was cruel to some of the women. He would not hesitate to have some of the women slapped across the face. On one occasion, some of the women did something of which he did not approve, so he ordered them to kneel before the Indonesian soldiers to have their heads shaved. Another time he knocked all the bread, which was to have fed about 5000 women, off the cart and kicked it about the streets. Then he ordered the women to bury it in the drains. He also ordered that no food should be given for two days'. Despite such hardships, Miss Andrews survived to see V.J. Day, recuperating with a sister in Australia. She returned to Sarawak as a Headmistress in the 1940s, was awarded the M.B.E. for her services as Principal of St. Mary's Church School in Kuching, and finally retired in 1951.