Iris Critchell was born in 1913 and grew up in Weymouth in Dorset. After mission training with the BCMS, she went out to Hong Kong in 1937 to work in the BCMS Children’s Home, which at that time was at Taipo NT.
When the Japanese invaded on 8th December 1941, the Home had been moved to Sha Tau Kok Road in Fanling and she was in charge. Just before 6am she received a phone call from the police advising her of the situation of war and that she was to put into operation the Medical Director Dr Selwyn Clarke’swartime arrangements for the three NT homes, ie hers, The Fanling Babies’ Home, and theDiocesan Rural Orphanageat Taipo. They were to transfer to the Jockey Club Stables.
She therefore rang Mildred Dibden at the Fanling Home nearby to alert her and started preparations for the move. Inspector Koo was organising the operation and a lorry took Iris and most of her girls off to the Stables. It returned at 9.00 to pick up the rest of the BCMS girls and 35 of the older girls (aged 4-5) from the Fanling Home, but the appearance of the first Japanese troops around 11.00am brought this operation to an end, leaving Mildred and her assistant, Australian nurse Ruth Little, stranded in Fanling, with some 60 infants.
Back at the Stables, Iris found she was the only European. By the 17th/19th* December the Chinese superintendent there had transferred his allegiance to the Japanese and as Iris was a potential liability to him, he forced her to leave with her amah. It was bitterly cold but they were well wrapped up. Bizarrely the words of a well-known song occurred to Iris, ‘All dressed up and nowhere to go.’ They decided to walk back to Fanling and Mildred Dibden’s Babies’ Home.
They wandered for two days and a night, during which they were robbed by opportunist thieves of valuables and most of their clothing. Iris realised as a European that it was dangerous for her to be seen out and about and sent her amah on ahead to Fanling. Mildred then managed to get clearance from the Colonel-in-Charge, Col Kanamaru, and Iris and her amah arrived soaked to the skin. Some dry clothing and hot porridge revived them. Iris was to spend the rest of the war managing the Home in a triumvirate (triumfeminate?) with Mildred Dibden and Ruth Little. Her BCMS Home had become unusable, having been thoroughly looted, down to doors, parquet flooring and window frames, due to the great shortage of fuel for cooking and heating. It gave the Fanling Home difficulties in getting their meagre bits of rice cooked.
Fortunately, with the charitable Col Kanamaru in charge locally, the looting of the Fanling Home was mostly over by this time. He gave permission for the children at the Stables to return in time for Christmas, which the women were determined to celebrate, despite the news of surrender, and they held a service with curious Japanese troops looking on.
Then a downturn; after a month Col Kanamaru moved on and the women found his successor to be less humane, and for the rest of the war the women found themselves subject to the vicious treatment commonly experienced in Hong Kong at that time.
Starvation was the next affliction and by mid-February of 1942 the youngest of the babies were dying. As the women buried them outside the gates of the Home, discussions were had for the best way forward. They felt as Europeans that they were a hindrance to the Home. Chinese nationals were strictly forbidden under pain of death to give assistance to Europeans, but if Chinese nationals could take over the Home, aid might be more forthcoming and the children might do better. So a letter was sent to the authorities suggesting that the three of them should join their compatriots at Stanley Camp. There was also a hope of repatriation. No answer came. Their problems were added to by the Japanese troops, who kept bringing more foundlings to the Home. Sixty of the youngest babies died in the first 6 months.
Hope dawned when Mildred managed to get fixed up with a monthly rice ration. However, she had to collect this in person from the authorities in Victoria once a month, which involved a round trip on foot of 40 miles. Iris and Ruth took turns in accompanying Mildred, using an old pram for transport but it all took its toll. In July the women were struck down with enteritis and Mildred’s malaria returned, but friends from the Braga family (not interned as of Portuguese origin) managed to get passes for the women to be admitted to the French Hospital.
Despite their best efforts, no Chinese nationals were found to take on the running of the Home and in September Iris and Ruth were well enough to return to run the Home, followed by Mildred in November.
In April 1943,Iris managed to get clearance for her older girls to transfer to the BCMS station in Nanning**, Guangxi Province, which eased the situation a little in the Home. In June she fell ill with quinsy, a peritonsillar abscess, which needed very careful treatment.
In July there was a cholera outbreak. Mildred and Ruth were both admitted to hospital with mild cases of it, and August found Iris battling alone at the Home. Mildred and Ruth were back by 9th September, and Mildred wrote in her diary, ‘Iris needs a rest after the heavy strain of responsibility.’
The next worry was that the Japanese would take over the Home. Fanling was their chief training centre and they had already taken over most of the large buildings. Thankfully this didn’t happen.
So another Christmas came, and on Christmas morning Mildred woke to the pleasant sound of Iris and Ruth singing carols outside her bedroom door. Later on, villagers came to the Home to hear the Christmas message acted and sung by the children.
In May of 1944 a desperate Mildred managed to get to Hong Kong to see Dr Arthur Woo, who had taken on the oversight of the Rural Orphanage at Taipo, and he was able to help her with money, medicines and an increase to the Home’s rice ration. He also fixed up a meeting for Mildred with Mr Aw Boon Haw, the wealthy Hong Kong philanthropist of Tiger Balm fame, who lent Mildred enough to start a pig business, which also greatly improved things. Other friends gave them a pair of breeding rabbits. This was a welcome supplement to the rice diet and the produce they were growing themselves in the gardens.
All this enabled them to get to the end of the war, but that brought its own troubles with lawlessness and looting until order was finally established. Mildred was ill with malaria and sprue and so was scheduled for priority repatriation along with Iris on the Empress of Australia. They sailed on the 11th September 1945 arriving in Liverpool on October 27th. Here they parted and Iris travelled home to Weymouth in Dorset and Mildred to Tunbridge Wells. Mildred was to return to Hong Kong but of Iris nothing more is said in Jill Doggett’s account.
So Iris Critchell’s story ends here. The BCMS First 25 Years report gives her a starting date of service (1937) but no finishing date when it was published in 1947, which would suggest she was still active with them at that time. Like her colleagues Mildred Dibden and Ruth Little, hers was an outstanding story of character, courage, dedication and faith.
She died in Dorset in 1999.
*Different sources give different dates. ** The First 25 years of the BCMS states that five older girls and their Chinese teacher left for the Bethel orphanage at Kweichow (Guizhou) in Kwangsi (Guangxi).
Thank you annpake. I was hoping you might come up with something. With team Gwulo at work, Gwulo website will be (maybe is already) the premier website for all sorts of collated or original information, not to be found anywhere else.
1. Article in the Newcastle Sun dated 31 August 1943 providing the first direct communication (written in January 1943) received from Miss Ruth Little. The well-being of Miss Dibden and Miss Critchell and the continuing work of the Fanling Babies' Home are mentioned.
2. Article in the Daily News (Perth, W.A.) dated 12 September 1945 on the ordeal suffered by three women medical missionaries, Little, Dibden and Critchell during the Japanese Occupation.
Comments
Iris Critchell Profile
Iris Critchell was born in 1913 and grew up in Weymouth in Dorset. After mission training with the BCMS, she went out to Hong Kong in 1937 to work in the BCMS Children’s Home, which at that time was at Taipo NT.
When the Japanese invaded on 8th December 1941, the Home had been moved to Sha Tau Kok Road in Fanling and she was in charge. Just before 6am she received a phone call from the police advising her of the situation of war and that she was to put into operation the Medical Director Dr Selwyn Clarke’s wartime arrangements for the three NT homes, ie hers, The Fanling Babies’ Home, and the Diocesan Rural Orphanage at Taipo. They were to transfer to the Jockey Club Stables.
She therefore rang Mildred Dibden at the Fanling Home nearby to alert her and started preparations for the move. Inspector Koo was organising the operation and a lorry took Iris and most of her girls off to the Stables. It returned at 9.00 to pick up the rest of the BCMS girls and 35 of the older girls (aged 4-5) from the Fanling Home, but the appearance of the first Japanese troops around 11.00am brought this operation to an end, leaving Mildred and her assistant, Australian nurse Ruth Little, stranded in Fanling, with some 60 infants.
Back at the Stables, Iris found she was the only European. By the 17th/19th* December the Chinese superintendent there had transferred his allegiance to the Japanese and as Iris was a potential liability to him, he forced her to leave with her amah. It was bitterly cold but they were well wrapped up. Bizarrely the words of a well-known song occurred to Iris, ‘All dressed up and nowhere to go.’ They decided to walk back to Fanling and Mildred Dibden’s Babies’ Home.
They wandered for two days and a night, during which they were robbed by opportunist thieves of valuables and most of their clothing. Iris realised as a European that it was dangerous for her to be seen out and about and sent her amah on ahead to Fanling. Mildred then managed to get clearance from the Colonel-in-Charge, Col Kanamaru, and Iris and her amah arrived soaked to the skin. Some dry clothing and hot porridge revived them. Iris was to spend the rest of the war managing the Home in a triumvirate (triumfeminate?) with Mildred Dibden and Ruth Little. Her BCMS Home had become unusable, having been thoroughly looted, down to doors, parquet flooring and window frames, due to the great shortage of fuel for cooking and heating. It gave the Fanling Home difficulties in getting their meagre bits of rice cooked.
Fortunately, with the charitable Col Kanamaru in charge locally, the looting of the Fanling Home was mostly over by this time. He gave permission for the children at the Stables to return in time for Christmas, which the women were determined to celebrate, despite the news of surrender, and they held a service with curious Japanese troops looking on.
Then a downturn; after a month Col Kanamaru moved on and the women found his successor to be less humane, and for the rest of the war the women found themselves subject to the vicious treatment commonly experienced in Hong Kong at that time.
Starvation was the next affliction and by mid-February of 1942 the youngest of the babies were dying. As the women buried them outside the gates of the Home, discussions were had for the best way forward. They felt as Europeans that they were a hindrance to the Home. Chinese nationals were strictly forbidden under pain of death to give assistance to Europeans, but if Chinese nationals could take over the Home, aid might be more forthcoming and the children might do better. So a letter was sent to the authorities suggesting that the three of them should join their compatriots at Stanley Camp. There was also a hope of repatriation. No answer came. Their problems were added to by the Japanese troops, who kept bringing more foundlings to the Home. Sixty of the youngest babies died in the first 6 months.
Hope dawned when Mildred managed to get fixed up with a monthly rice ration. However, she had to collect this in person from the authorities in Victoria once a month, which involved a round trip on foot of 40 miles. Iris and Ruth took turns in accompanying Mildred, using an old pram for transport but it all took its toll. In July the women were struck down with enteritis and Mildred’s malaria returned, but friends from the Braga family (not interned as of Portuguese origin) managed to get passes for the women to be admitted to the French Hospital.
Despite their best efforts, no Chinese nationals were found to take on the running of the Home and in September Iris and Ruth were well enough to return to run the Home, followed by Mildred in November.
In April 1943, Iris managed to get clearance for her older girls to transfer to the BCMS station in Nanning**, Guangxi Province, which eased the situation a little in the Home. In June she fell ill with quinsy, a peritonsillar abscess, which needed very careful treatment.
In July there was a cholera outbreak. Mildred and Ruth were both admitted to hospital with mild cases of it, and August found Iris battling alone at the Home. Mildred and Ruth were back by 9th September, and Mildred wrote in her diary, ‘Iris needs a rest after the heavy strain of responsibility.’
The next worry was that the Japanese would take over the Home. Fanling was their chief training centre and they had already taken over most of the large buildings. Thankfully this didn’t happen.
So another Christmas came, and on Christmas morning Mildred woke to the pleasant sound of Iris and Ruth singing carols outside her bedroom door. Later on, villagers came to the Home to hear the Christmas message acted and sung by the children.
In May of 1944 a desperate Mildred managed to get to Hong Kong to see Dr Arthur Woo, who had taken on the oversight of the Rural Orphanage at Taipo, and he was able to help her with money, medicines and an increase to the Home’s rice ration. He also fixed up a meeting for Mildred with Mr Aw Boon Haw, the wealthy Hong Kong philanthropist of Tiger Balm fame, who lent Mildred enough to start a pig business, which also greatly improved things. Other friends gave them a pair of breeding rabbits. This was a welcome supplement to the rice diet and the produce they were growing themselves in the gardens.
All this enabled them to get to the end of the war, but that brought its own troubles with lawlessness and looting until order was finally established. Mildred was ill with malaria and sprue and so was scheduled for priority repatriation along with Iris on the Empress of Australia. They sailed on the 11th September 1945 arriving in Liverpool on October 27th. Here they parted and Iris travelled home to Weymouth in Dorset and Mildred to Tunbridge Wells. Mildred was to return to Hong Kong but of Iris nothing more is said in Jill Doggett’s account.
So Iris Critchell’s story ends here. The BCMS First 25 Years report gives her a starting date of service (1937) but no finishing date when it was published in 1947, which would suggest she was still active with them at that time. Like her colleagues Mildred Dibden and Ruth Little, hers was an outstanding story of character, courage, dedication and faith.
She died in Dorset in 1999.
*Different sources give different dates. ** The First 25 years of the BCMS states that five older girls and their Chinese teacher left for the Bethel orphanage at Kweichow (Guizhou) in Kwangsi (Guangxi).
Sources:
The Yip Family of Amah Rock by Jill Doggett
The First 25 Years of the BCMS
Australian Newspapers in the links below, see moddsey's post.
Iris Kathleen Critchell February 1913 - 1999
Ancestry
Iris Kathleen Critchell born February 1913 death registered Quarter 1 1999 in South Dorset.
Iris Kathleen Critchell February 1913 - 23 March 1999
1921 Census Wesley Street Weymouth Iris Kathleen Critchell aged 7 years 3 months living with father a dock porter, mother, brother and sister .
UK Probate Records of Death
Iris Kathleen Critchell death date 23 March 1999
Thank you
Thank you annpake. I was hoping you might come up with something. With team Gwulo at work, Gwulo website will be (maybe is already) the premier website for all sorts of collated or original information, not to be found anywhere else.
Iris Critchell in the Australian Newspapers
1. Article in the Newcastle Sun dated 31 August 1943 providing the first direct communication (written in January 1943) received from Miss Ruth Little. The well-being of Miss Dibden and Miss Critchell and the continuing work of the Fanling Babies' Home are mentioned.
2. Article in the Daily News (Perth, W.A.) dated 12 September 1945 on the ordeal suffered by three women medical missionaries, Little, Dibden and Critchell during the Japanese Occupation.
Iris Critchell dob
According to the programme for her funeral she was born on September 4, 1913.