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Aunts War Stories EDDY

By S Eddy

In 1942 the Japanese attacked Singapore without warning, the same as when they attacked Pearl Harbour. At that time my father was the Harbourmaster at Keppel, which was known as the Civil Harbour, it is situated in the South of the Island, whereas the Military Harbour was at the North of the Island.
When the attacks began, my Father ordered my mother and myself to crouch under the house, while he went to the Docks, to oversee the operations. On the 9th February 1942, things then became serious, and my mother and I had to leave. As my Father was the harbourmaster he was unable to leave in fact he was one of the last to leave.
The troopship we left on “ The Empress of Japan “, had on board 2000 woman, & Children, plus 8 babies born between Singapore & Colombo. We were unable to have convoy protection, but we did have “The Duchess of Bedford “another troopship laden with woman & children.
“Entering the Malacca Straights, The Duchess was hit and crippled by Japanese torpedoes. So a journey that would normally be a matter of hours took nearly 3 days. Night and day we were being machined — gunned, all passengers had to remain in the dining saloon. I remember the crew ran the gauntlet of the firing to supply the children with sweets & chocolates. Eventually both ships arrived safely in Colombo.
My Mother & I disembarked to await my Father. We stayed with my Aunt and Uncle, who worked for the Shell Oil Co. Back in Singapore, on the day it fell, my Father was ordered to take all VIPs away, as the Japanese would torture them. So he commandeered a local ferry called “Bagan” and took all the English VIPs to safety in Batavia.
My Mother & I had now given up hope of my Father joining us, so we went to Thomas Cook & booked a passage to England. Returning to my Aunts house, she greeted us by saying “You have a special guest”, his name is Captain Eddy, at this my Mother went into hysterics, and said “I don’t find that remark, at all funny “. My Father then appeared, with Full beard & Moustache.

My family then went on board a Dutch ship called “New Amsterdam, and proceeded to South Africa. On arrival in Cape Town, we were ordered off the ship, because it had to go back to collect evacuees. The two years we lived in South Africa was very traumatic, because we were English refugees from Singapore, we were treated very badly because of this. On 9th December 1944,we set sail for England on “Glenarteny”. On our voyage home we were attacked several times by air and U-boat. We arrived in Liverpool on Christmas Day 1944.

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