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ARTS&LEISURE
160
February15
Singapore Mutiny by Edwin A. Brown and
Mary Brown (ISBN 9789814625050),
with forewords by Professor Brian
P. Farrell, Dr Nigel Barley and Celia
Ferguson MBE (eldest granddaughter
of Edwin and Mary Brown), is published
by Monsoon Books and is available at
leading bookstores in Singapore from 1
February 2015 ($19.80) and from ebook
retailers worldwide.
My dear Barbara,
I am finishing the transcribing of the notes made by
Mummy and myself many years after the exciting
incidents occurred to the three of us. I am sitting
at a little table in the deckhouse of a cargo ship in
the Indian Ocean, homeward bound, and the events
contained in this book seem now a very long way off.
But at the time, dear, it was very real trouble, and
on looking back upon it all now it seems that only a
very small thing saved us from a terrible disaster on
that 15th day of February 1915 … perhaps in days
to come you will pick up this book, and read once again
with interest of the time when you were a refugee on a
ship and went through the troublous days of what will
always be known as ‘The Singapore Mutiny’.
Your ever loving
Daddy (1925)
Never shall I forget the anxiety of that
night [aboard the SS Ipoh]. We lay
there quietly, praying for the safety
of our men on shore. I did not know
where Edwin was, but felt he was in
the thickest of it all … we longed to
see the first launch coming out, and
the next we dreaded to look for it, in
case it might bring us the bad news we
were all half expecting to receive.
– Mary Brown
Motorcars kept
bringing fresh news
of another murder.
Every time one
arrived I got to think
that I should hear
of Mary and Baba
being among the
number, until I got to
hate the sight of an
arriving car.
– Edwin A. Brown
Edwin, Mary and
Barbara Brown shortly
before the mutiny,
Singapore 1914
Edwin A.
Brown
with his
bride Mary,
Singapore
1910
Captain Edwin
A. Brown, officer
commanding
the Chinese
Company,
Singapore
Volunteer Corps,
Singapore 1915