Singapore Evacuation Ships
For several years the Western Australia arrivals passenger lists have been digitised and searchable for free on the National Archives of Australia website. These have proved very useful for 'Malaya' and evacuees research and enquiries. The National Archives of Australia has now digitised the following: Volumes of inward passenger lists - ships - April 1940 to March 1942 and March 1942 to August 1945 covering Melbourne arrivals and also Passenger lists, inwards ships, Sydney [Form M308] [January to December 1942]. They contain the names of hundreds of evacuees from Singapore.
Please contact Michael Pether for information about the evacuation ships and their passenger lists at: [email protected]
The information in these memorial documents may be shared freely, but is not available for use in commercial publications or published books without the specific written permission of Michael Pether.
Please contact Michael Pether for information about the evacuation ships and their passenger lists at: [email protected]
The information in these memorial documents may be shared freely, but is not available for use in commercial publications or published books without the specific written permission of Michael Pether.
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As the first bombs fell on Singapore, after the invasion by the Japanese of northern Malaya on 8 December 1941, civilian families began to evacuate their women and children by ship back to England, India, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
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Because of the unrealistically positive official statements by the authorities many families delayed this move and so through December and January evacuations continued at a modest pace ,until panic set in by early February 1942 when it was obvious that the Japanese troops were almost unstoppable. Once the Japanese made a successful landing on Singapore island on 8 February 1942 there were long lines of European and Eurasian families queuing each day attempting to obtain an exit pass and passenger ticket at the shipping office set up in the suburbs of Singapore - usually unsuccessfully because of bureaucratic incompetence and with the result that many ships were leaving half empty! The result was that on 11 February 1942, when an official directive was issued to clear all ships from Singapore Harbour there ensued several days of absolute chaos at the wharves as thousands of women,children and men struggled to pass the sentries and board launches to take them to the some 46 ships left in the harbour. This was occurring under constant shell fire and bombing by the Japanese who were by then on the outskirts of central Singapore - the city was in flames , hundreds of bodies lay in the streets and the city was full of despondent troops who had left their posts. During 11 - 13 February 1942 several thousand women,children ,babies,civilian men and service personnel boarded the ships remaining in the harbour bound for either Freemantle or Batavia ( Jakarta ). Most were caught by the bombs of the Japanese airforce or the shells of the powerful destroyers and cruisers of the Japanese Navy as they threaded their way through the islands of the Riau and Lingga Archipelagos and through the Banka Strait - of the 46 ships which left in this last loose convoy only and 6 ships made it to safety, including the 'SS Empire Star', 'SS Gorgon and converted merchantman 'HMS Scott Harley'.
The death toll was horrendous and most of the survivors of the ships which were sunk spent the rest of the war in the privation and horrors of Japanese internment camps in Sumatra where up to 30 percent died in some camps.
The death toll was horrendous and most of the survivors of the ships which were sunk spent the rest of the war in the privation and horrors of Japanese internment camps in Sumatra where up to 30 percent died in some camps.