Sybil Kathigasu

Sybil Kathigasu GM (1899-1948) was a Eurasian Malayan nurse who supported the resistance during the Japanese occupation of Malaya. She is the only Malayan woman to be ever awarded with the George Medal for bravery.

Biography

Sybil Daly was born to an Irish planter and an Indian mother. She was trained as a nurse and midwife and spoke Cantonese fluently. She and her husband, Dr. Abdon Clement Kathigasu, operated a clinic at No 141 Brewster Road (now Jalan Sultan Idris Shah) in Ipoh from 1926 until the Japanese invasion of Malaya. The family escaped to the nearby town of Papan days before Japanese forces occupied Ipoh. The local Chinese community fondly remembered Dr. AC Kathigasu and gave him a Hakka nickname "You Loy-De".

Residing at No. 74, Main Street in Papan, Kathigasu secretly kept shortwave radio sets and listened to BBC broadcasts. The family quietly supplied medicines, medical services and information to the resistance forces until they were arrested in 1943. They were jailed and tortured. After Malaya was liberated in August 1945, Kathigasu was flown to Britain for medical treatment. There, she began writing her memoirs and was awarded the George Medal.

Marriage and children

Sybil Daly and Dr. Abdon Clement Kathigasu MBE (1892-1972) married in 1919. The couple had two daughters and an adopted son:
*William Pillay (b. 1918)
*Olga Kathigasu (b. 1921)
*Dawn Kathigasu (b. 1936)

Death and afterward

Sybil Kathigasu died in 1948 in Britain and her body was buried in Lanark, Scotland. Her body was later returned to Ipoh and buried at the Catholic cemetery besides the St. Michael Church.

A road in the City of Ipoh was named after Sybil Kathigasu after independence to commemorate her bravery.

Published works

*"No Dram of Mercy" (Neville Spearman, 1954; reprinted Oxford University Press, 1983 and Prometheus Enterprises, 2006)
*"Faces of Courage: A Revealing Historical Appreciation of Colonial Malaya's Legendary Kathigasu Family" by Norma Miraflor & Ian Ward (2006, ISBN 9789810551414)

References

*cite news |title=Edith of Malaya |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,779870,00.html |work=Time |date=1948-06-28 |accessdate=2008-05-27
*cite book |title=Doctors Extraordinaire |last=Ho |first=Tak Ming |year=2000 |publisher=Perak Academy |isbn=9834055609 |pages=pp. 113-115 |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=iBdvdR0KhvMC&pg=PA10&dq=%22Sybil+Kathigasu%22&num=100&sig=SFZY8TPOlPcK1X8GuoJAK0sxbo8#PPA10,M1 |accessdate=2008-05-27