Elizabeth Choy

Elizabeth Choy

In her Early life

Elizabeth Choy-Yong Su-Moi was born on 29 November 1910 to a Hakka family in Kudat, British North Borneo. Choy was looked after by a Kadazan nanny and acquired Kadazan as her first language.She became an Anglican at St Monica's boarding school in Sandakan, where she took the name Elizabeth, and went on to complete her education at Raffles College in Singapore. As her family could not afford the fees, she started to teach, first at St Margaret’s School and then at St Andrew’s.

In August 1941 she married Choy Khun Heng, a book-keeper employed by the Borneo Company.

During World War 2

During the Japanese invasion of Malaya, Choy became a volunteer nurse with the Medical Auxiliary Service. After the fall of Singapore in 1942, the Choys set up a canteen at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital, after all the patients and doctors had been moved from the Miyako Hospital (former Woodbridge Hospital), where they soon started a regular ambulance run for British civilian internees. The couple helped the Changi prisoners-of-war (POW) by passing on cash and parcels containing such things as fresh clothing, medicine and letters during their deliveries, and incurred further risk by sending in radio parts for hidden receivers until the Japanese crackdown following Operation Jaywick.

During the subsequent Double Tenth Incident, an informant told the Kempeitai that the Choys were involved in smuggling money into Changi Prison, and Khun Heng was arrested. After several days, Elizabeth went to the Kempeitai East District Branch at the YMCA building on Stamford Road to inquire about her husband. The Japanese denied all knowledge of him, but lured her back to the YMCA three weeks later and confined her with other Chinese and Changi prisoners. She was imprisoned and subjected to torture. Mr R. H. Scott, a former Director of the British Ministry of Information (Far Eastern Branch) and principal witness at the War Crimes Court in Singapore, had witnessed Choy being stripped and severely beaten "on at least one occasion".

At the Japanese surrender in Singapore in September 1945, Choy was invited by Lady Mountbatten to witness the official ceremony, where she was escorted by the governor, Sir Shenton Thomas, and his wife, to whom she had sent medicine in Changi.

Citation : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Choy