Our life changed overnight. We were repatriated to Singapore for safety. That was the year 1939 or 1940. We had to destroy everything we had because the Japanese were coming and if they knew we were British, there would be no more Carrolls. I remember our beautiful family portraits of our ancestors. We were crying as we tore them and burnt them.
They sent my mother and the children first and Dad came later. We went in ships to Singapore. In Singapore we were caught in the war. It was December 8, 1941 when the Japanese arrived. My Aunt and Uncle were staying in the Harbour Ports, near the ships. We went to stay in the Hong Kong Bank Chambers which was in town. We fled there for safety. That was the time of the bombings. People everywhere were running away. There were big ships coming to take everyone away from Singapore to go to India, Burma or other English ruled states. My father wanted to go. I said, “Don’t go, you’ll never get through. Wherever you want to go we won’t get through”.
You could hear the bombs falling and you could see the ships and buildings burning. I was not the eldest, but I was the brainy, determined one. My mother and father were a bundle of nerves and didn’t know what to do. I was the strong one. I said to them. “There’s a coin here, I’m going to spin it. If it’s tails, we go. If it’s heads we stay”. I tossed the coin and it was heads. We went back to the shelter.
We stayed there for 3 days amidst the shelling and bombing. Eventually the Japanese landed and told us all to come out. In the mean time, the soldiers were throwing away their uniforms. They were all young, young soldiers, Australians, British, as well as local men. They did not want to be caught by the Japanese. My two brothers were in the army, too.
We were all put in a big building. I was 17 then. Aunty Vera, Uncle Sunny and Jack were with us. My father was an engineer and the Japanese wanted to use his skills. The Japanese put us in a ship, with the cattle. It was so hot and dirty. There was lice on everything. We were there for 3 days, 2 days and nights on the ship, one day on the beach, with all our boxes.
Jack was in love with me and he told his father and mother, my Aunt and Uncle that he wanted to follow us. That is how all of them and us ended up in Miri. There I married him, in the end of 1942. Yvonne was born in 1944.
In 1945 the allies started to come. Once again, we were being bombed and shelled. We were in the village in the jungle. The Japanese came after us towards the end of the war. 3 days before the allies landed they took Jackie away from us. They pointed a bayonet at him and took him away without a reason. That was the last I saw of him. He was taken away as a prisoner and shot. He was so young and good and kind and caring. We had been married for only 2 years and our daughter, Yvonne, was only 9 months old. I married at the age of 19 and was made a widow at 21 years. I still remember Jackie like I saw him yesterday, his face will forever be etched on my mind. I always used to wonder what life would be like if he was not taken from me. Who we would be today? Would we be another long married couple like Molly and Jim or Ann and Edwin? Then again, it would be another life story and I would not have all the wonderful children and grandchildren I have now. I wouldn’t want to change that for the world either.
When the allies came in, they rounded us up and took us back. We were like refugees then. They looked after us and gave us shelter and clothes. They tended to us as most of us were suffering from malnutrition and were covered in sores. Then they asked us where we wanted to go. We could go to Australia, India or any of the British colonies. I wanted to go to Australia. I had some soldier friends who were very fond of Yvonne. They asked us to come with them to Australia because they said it is a good country to live in. But then my father in law and mother in law did not want to go. They wanted to wait for Jack.
At that time none of us had known that he had already been killed by the Japanese. It was October of 1945 when we found out that he had been shot. My mother in law would not believe it and she would not go to Australia. She wanted to go back to Singapore. I said I would not go to Singapore, Yvonne and I would remain in Miri. They pleaded and pleaded with me and eventually I relented. That is how we all ended up in Singapore.
| Back to Top |