Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Civil) 2nd type Lady’s breast badge mounted on bow and tails in its Royal Mint case of issue, together with a quantity of original documentation relating to Miss E. S. Andrews, Principal of St Mary’s Church of England School, Kuching, Sarawak, including official letters concerning the award and presentation of the M.B.E.; Board of Education Teacher’s Certificate, 1st February 1907; another from the Education Department, Sarawak, 20 July 1949; original copy of the Sarawak Government Gazette announcing M.B.E.; three related photographs and a news cutting giving details of her wartime experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese, extremely fine

M.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1949. ‘Miss Edith Sophia Andrews, Principal, St Mary’s Church of England School, Kuching, Sarawak.’ The accompanying news cutting, presumably written before the award of the M.B.E., gives the following information:

‘Missionary was Japs’ Prisoner. A difficult walk through the jungle from Betong, on the Saribas River in Sarawak, and internment in a number of Japanese camps are among the experiences of Miss Edith S. Andrews, who has been a Church of England missionary in the diocese of Labuan and Sarawak for the past 30 years. When it became apparent that the Japanese were nearing Sarawak, Miss Andrews said, she started on her journey of attempted escape, which brought her to many places before her actual escape. After walking through the jungle accompanied by dark schoolmasters, she boarded a small boat and later crossed over the Dutch border. In Batavia she taught conversational English to the Dutch, earning nearly enough money to pay her expenses. It was while there at midnight Miss Andrews was awakened by a voice saying “Japan is here.” She was interned in the hotel for three months, but was able to continue teaching English.

Miss Andrews said thet apparently the Japanese forgot all about her, so she took the law into her own hands, left the hotel and went to stay with a Dutch lady for two months. After that the Japanese caught up with her and she was notified that she had to go to a Malay school, where other English had been interned. There she remained about a year. Miss Andrews was then transferred to a prison at Tanehtiggi, which was a former Dutch reformatory. Here the women were at first locked in their cells at dusk. From there she was moved to Tangeram, another prison where from 30 to 90 women were accommodated in a room. Another move saw Miss Andrews at Tjidng, a suburb of Batavia.

At first the prisoners were fairly comfortable, but the food supply became shorter and shorter she said. The commandant was cruel to some of the women. He would not hesitate to have them slapped across the face. On one occasion some of the women did something of which he did not approve, so he ordered them to kneel before Indonesian soldiers to have their heads shaved. Another time he knocked all the bread, which was to have fed about 5,000 women, off the cart and kicked it about the street. Then he ordered the women to bury it in the drains. He also ordered that no foods should be given for two days.’