Sybil Kathigasu Born 1899 Died 12 Jun 1948 Country British Malaya and Borneo

the history of Sybil Khatigasu Sybil Daly was a child to an Irish planter and an Indian mother. She was a nurse and midwife. She was born in Medan, Sumatra and grow up in Malaya where large populations of Chinese ex-patriots resided, she also spoke fluent Cantonese. She married Dr. Abdon Clement Kathigasu in 1919 and they had two daughters, Olga and Dawn and one adopted son, William. They operated a clinic in Ipoh, Malaya from 1926 until the day before Japanese troops arrived on 26 Dec 1942. They went into hiding in the nearby town of Papan, where they kept a shortwave radio to listen to BBC broadcasts and at times provided medical assistance to members of 5th Independent Regiment of the communist Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army. Dr. Kathigasu was arrested in Jul 1943, and Sybil Kathigasu was arrested in the following month, both thrown in prison, and tortured. In Feb 1945, he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and she received a life sentence. They were betrayed and she was caught by the Japanese in 1943 and tortured mercilessly. She underwent the "Tokyo wine treatment" whereby water was pumped into her and her torturer would stomp on her stomach and force water out of her through all her orifices. She was beaten, burnt and kicked on the jaw in an attempt to break her. She could not walk, lost all her fingernails and had broken bones everywhere, including her skull. Her five-year-old daughter, Dawn, was dangled from a tree and her torturers threatened to roast her child alive with charcoal burning beneath her. Eventhough she is being tortured and thrown into prison by the Japanese military police, Sybil never reveal any information about the resistance movement. She survived the ordeal although her health was severely affected after the various injuries sustained during her imprisonment. They were freed in Aug 1945 by communist forces, and she was flown to the United Kingdom in Sep 1945 for medical treatment. While in the UK, she began to write her memoirs, later published under the title No Dram of Mercy in 1954. She was awarded the George Medal at the Buckingham Palace by King George VI for her bravery during the Japanese occupation, and was the only Malayan woman to have received the award. She passed away in the United Kingdom in 1948 as the result of injuries sustained from being tortured. She was initially buried in Lanark, Scotland, UK, but now rests in peace at the Catholic cemetery beside St. Michael Church in Ipoh. Sybil Kathigasu is our World War II heroine. Her nursing skills and quiet determination have also termed her the title, Malaysia's Florence Nightingale. The real Sybil, according to older daughter Olga, was of French and Penang Eurasian descent. She married AC Kathigasu, a doctor while she was a trained nurse and together they operated a clinic in Ipoh from 1926 until Japanese troops arrived in Malaya on 26 December, 1942. The two-storey shophouse at 74 Main Street in Papan now belongs to a private individual and is open to tourists for viewing. The shooting of the drama was done entirely in Perak and also at the house, from last December to early February this year. Everything mentioned in her memoir No Dram of Mercy was preserved in the house, including the well-

concealed hole under the staircase where the radio was hidden. Sybil's last wish was to have her clinic in Papan serve the poor even after her death, but state medical services have filled the need.