Allan, Sheila (Civilian, b.1924 - d.2022) Accession Number: PR00666

Description

Collection relating to the Second World War experiences of Sheila Allan, civilian internee, Singapore, 1942-1945.

The collection consists of three wallets of documents, letters, and ephemera relating to Allan's experiences as a civilian internee in Changi Women's Camp from 1942 to 1945.

Wallet 1 of 3 - Consists of three folders of documents, correspondence and diaries. Folder 1 contains 36 letters, postcards and Christmas and birthday cards sent between Allan, her father and other friends and relatives between June 1942 and December 1945. The correspondence concerns conditions in the camp and the lives of relatives in Australia, invitations to camp events, and letters of condolence following the death of Allan's father in the Changi civilian men's camp in June 1945. Folder 2 contains the loose-leaf pages of two diaries maintained by Allan between May 1944 and November 1945 whilst an internee and an additional page of entries made in February 1992 on a return trip to Singapore. Allan writes of her internment at Changi, camp administration and activities (including concerts, arts and crafts, and production of a camp newspaper called 'Weekly pow-wow'), school, the death of her father, the Japanese surrender, and post-victory events. The folder also includes a 1942 certificate of vaccination for Allan and the receipt for the issue of a Red Cross food package to Allan in December 1943. Folder 3 contains programmes, songs and a story related to concerts and performances held in the women's camp at Changi. The folder also includes Allan's sketch design for her contribution to a tablecloth that was made in the camp.

Wallet 2 of 3 - contains one folder of four documents. The wallet includes the minutes of meetings held on 4 January and 17 February 1943 concerning conditions in the women's camp, partial minutes for the weekly 'Pow-Wow' held on 13 January 1943, and a copy of the address made by Dr Elinor Hopkins, the camp physician, in circa 1943.

Wallet 3 of 3 - consists of one folder containing a 1992 manuscript by Allan titled "Journey to Changi and Down Under: Diary of Events between 8th December, 1941 to 24th November, 1945, Written by a Seventeen Year Old Girl". The memoir, largely drawn from Allan's wartime diaries, describes Allan's movements with her family through Malaya to Singapore, air raids, the fall of Singapore, her internment in Changi prison for women with her step-mother, camp administration, activities and politics, school, her move to Sime Road Camp, the death of her father, the dangers of keeping a diary, the Japanese surrender, and her flight via Labuan and Morotai to Australia to live with her aunt. The manuscript also includes postscript describing Allan's return to Changi and Sime Road camps in 1992. The manuscript was subsequently published under the title "Diary of a Girl in Changi, 1944-45".

Details

Conflicts

• Second World War, 1939-1945
• Period 1990-1999

Places

• Malaya
• Singapore

Tags

• Concert
• Internees
• Changi Gaol
• Sime Road Prisoner of War Camp
• Memoirs