Remarkable fortitude amid war-time horrors - new book by Aldingbourne author

It is available from the St Olav Trust Bookshop in North Street Chichester plus Waterstones and also online at Pen & Sword and Amazon.

Barbara, who lives in Aldingbourne, said: “This is an extraordinary story of women’s strength, tenacity and creativity during the most appalling treatment during internment following the Fall of Singapore. These women were the basis of the popular television series Tenko. The creator, Lavinia Warner whom I met in 2012, has written the foreword in my book. Often the civilians during war are the ones forgotten, particularly women, who show such courage and fortitude when they are the ones often fleeing, with their children, from war-torn countries. These women, escaping the unthinkable reality that Singapore was no longer impregnable, boarded ships that were bombed and sunk on their way to safety. If they survived, they faced three and half years of shocking treatment in internment. Although women’s internment has been written about previously, I wanted to present a different perspective.

“Internment was only a small part of their lives. They were women with careers, experiences and expectations before this catastrophic event; I therefore wanted to know how did they come to be in Singapore and what were their earlier stories? The book focuses on two women, Margaret Dryburgh and Shelagh Brown, and begins with their childhood through to internment and beyond.

“Margaret Dryburgh was a missionary with extraordinary talents; she had an astonishing musical memory, could sketch and compose birthday poems for other internees and even wrote a tongue in cheek version of Alice in Wonderland, naming it Alice in Internment Land to the amusement of other internees. However, very little was known about her earlier life.

"At the beginning of internment Margaret and her fellow colleagues shared the only accommodation available, a garage, with ten other women and a small boy.

“Shelagh Brown, and her mother Mary Brown, were in this group and on July 5 1942, Margaret asked Shelagh and another Garage 9 member Dorothy MacLeod to sing with her for the first time the hymn she had composed, The Captives Hymn. This hymn became the one that they sang throughout captivity and is now sung around the world in Remembrance services.

“After eighteen months, when spirits were beginning to fade, Margaret collaborated with Norah Chambers to create the incredible Vocal Orchestra which many described as lifting them out of the squalor and far away.

The focus on Shelagh partly stems from living alongside Margaret in this small group in Garage 9, being the first to sing the Captives Hymn and singing in the Vocal Orchestra, created by Margaret and Norah Chambers.

"Shelagh had a fine singing voice and also wrote a diary throughout internment which provides a fascinating window on daily life with all the emotions of living under such shocking conditions and yet displays an ability see humour.

“Shelagh was a colonial child and therefore her earlier life was very different to Margaret’s and yet their connections pull them together and they shared a deep faith: their lives, I believed, would be an interesting comparison.

“I wanted to research their lives in those years prior to the fall of Singapore, what gave them this tenacity and ability to withstand the appalling treatment? What brought them to Singapore? Both of these women and many of their fellow internees had a strong faith which I wanted to highlight, as well as their ability to find humour in the harrowing and shocking treatment they received.”