Bonnie Robinson (later Penny) features as a friend of Mildred Dibden in the book ‘The Yip Family of Amah Rock’, and a lifelong supporter of her work in Hong Kong. This piece tells her story from the book’s perspective, and so is not about her career.
Their meeting in 1936 was purely by chance on the Japanese ship Suwa Maru en route to Hong Kong, where they found that an admin had put them together with one Charlotte (‘Charles’) Bird, at the same table, as being English speaking and the same age (all 3 were born in 1905). The three formed a lifelong friendship, although having very different backgrounds.
Bonnie was born in Hong Kong and lived with her parents in a house in Kowloon. She was trained as a secretary and was returning after a holiday in Britain to take up a fresh post as a private secretary in Hong Kong. Charles was a teacher and was going out to the Colony to take up a teaching post. Mildred was returning to Hong Kong after recovering from malaria to start her life’s work taking in abandoned babies. On the journey something of Mildred’s enthusiasm rubbed off on the other two and they became lifelong supporters of her work.
In Hong KongNicola Tyrer tells us that Bonnie and Charles ran a secretarial school together before the war, teaching short-hand and book-keeping amongst others things.
In 1940 when Mildred and 49 babies were moved into the Fanling Babies’ Home from Cheung Chau, Bonnie and Charles had organised the young people of St Andrews Church to help in ‘Operation Babies’ Home.’ They had recruited young men from the RAF, girls from the Diocesan Girls' School,boy scouts and choristers.Major Charles Mannersalso provided assistance. He was the general manager of the Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company.
Bonnie met and married Richard Penny, who was serving in the Forces in Hong Kong. As the War with Japan loomed, she and Charles both became voluntary Civil Defence wardens, which exempted them from evacuation orders. This tells us something of Bonnie's character. They were staying.
Barbara Anslow’s wartime diary ‘Tin Hats and Rice’ records Barbara as a stenographer for the HK Government and based in the Air Raid Precautions Department HQ in Dina House.
On the 12 December 1941 during the battle for Hong Kong, Barbara records that Bonnie Penny and Mrs Bird joined her office staff. Both had just come from Kowloon when evacuated.
‘We secretaries worked in two shifts – Peggy and I, the Bonnie and Charles. Our job was to keep a log of events, mostly messages per phone calls, and also to make out identification cards for ARP people.’
After Hong Kong fell, they ended up with some 2000 others in the civilian internment camp at Stanley, 7 miles away, ‘in cramped accommodation: camp beds with little bedding, no hot water for washing ourselves or our clothes. Food consisted of rice, vegetables, and sometimes minute quantities of meat or fish; no desserts. Most of us had lost our homes and possessions through bombing and shelling – or looting after surrender on Christmas Day.’
After the War ended, Bonnie and Charles had a happy reunion in Stanley Camp with Mildred together with Bonnie’s parents, Florence and James Robinson, who had also survived internment. Sadly Bonnie’s husband Richard had been lost at sea when the Lisbon Maru went down.
As Mildred was in urgent need of repatriation, Charles volunteered to take over the running of the Home and defer her recuperation (until 1946 when Mildred returned). Bonnie was repatriated together with her parents to Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, not far from Mildred in Mundon. In due course Bonnie picked up with a government secretarial post back in Hong Kong.
In 1952Mildred set up for a second time in Hong Kong in 2 bungalows in the New Territories. As numbers increased and bigger premises were needed, Bonnie went with her to look at the Old Police Station at Shatin. They decided it would suit very well and together made plans for its use and renovation. So the Shatin Babies' Home came into being, which flourished for 13 years, until the government took responsibility for foundlings in the Colony.
In 1966 when Mildred relocated again back to the UK with a household of 25, Bonnie ‘did much of the spadework’ in Hong Kong along with Charles Bird and Pat Best at the UK end, and she was part of final preparations before saying a last goodbye.
Bonnie Penny and Charlotte Bird both get a mention in Nicola Tyrer’s ‘Stolen Childhoods’ account of the war. In Stanley Camp high standards of education were quickly established because of the number of highly qualified teachers who had been interned. School chairs and desks* given by the Red Cross were used, and when academic training ended, youngsters moved into professional training.
Bill Macauley found himself being taught by Bonnie and Charlotte, who had been his ARP supervisors during the battle of Hong Kong, when he had been a messenger - ‘Before the war they had run a secretarial school. I was taught Pitman short-hand and book-keeping. We made makeshift keyboards from scraps of wood, all marked out with the QWERTY keyboard. At the end of six months we were tested and awarded a certificate. Those skills proved useful. After the war I was in the RAF and working on the section recruiting potential clerks and marking all their typing papers. The WAAF tester thought I was as good as her. She was stunned when I told her I learned all my skills in a prison camp!’
Bonnie and Charlotte were certainly good teachers.
* The Hattori Memorandum of 1943 records 30 school desks and chairs.
Bonnie married Richard Penny circa 1939/40. He was serving in the armed forces in Hong Kong. He was one of those lost on the Lisbon Maru when it was sunk on 1st Oct 1942.
Comments
Birth Date
Bonnie's birth date was July 13th 1905. As recorded by Mildred Dibden.
From the books of Jill Doggett and Barbara Anslow
Bonnie Robinson (later Penny) features as a friend of Mildred Dibden in the book ‘The Yip Family of Amah Rock’, and a lifelong supporter of her work in Hong Kong. This piece tells her story from the book’s perspective, and so is not about her career.
Their meeting in 1936 was purely by chance on the Japanese ship Suwa Maru en route to Hong Kong, where they found that an admin had put them together with one Charlotte (‘Charles’) Bird, at the same table, as being English speaking and the same age (all 3 were born in 1905). The three formed a lifelong friendship, although having very different backgrounds.
Bonnie was born in Hong Kong and lived with her parents in a house in Kowloon. She was trained as a secretary and was returning after a holiday in Britain to take up a fresh post as a private secretary in Hong Kong. Charles was a teacher and was going out to the Colony to take up a teaching post. Mildred was returning to Hong Kong after recovering from malaria to start her life’s work taking in abandoned babies. On the journey something of Mildred’s enthusiasm rubbed off on the other two and they became lifelong supporters of her work.
In Hong Kong Nicola Tyrer tells us that Bonnie and Charles ran a secretarial school together before the war, teaching short-hand and book-keeping amongst others things.
In 1940 when Mildred and 49 babies were moved into the Fanling Babies’ Home from Cheung Chau, Bonnie and Charles had organised the young people of St Andrews Church to help in ‘Operation Babies’ Home.’ They had recruited young men from the RAF, girls from the Diocesan Girls' School, boy scouts and choristers. Major Charles Manners also provided assistance. He was the general manager of the Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company.
Bonnie met and married Richard Penny, who was serving in the Forces in Hong Kong. As the War with Japan loomed, she and Charles both became voluntary Civil Defence wardens, which exempted them from evacuation orders. This tells us something of Bonnie's character. They were staying.
Barbara Anslow’s wartime diary ‘Tin Hats and Rice’ records Barbara as a stenographer for the HK Government and based in the Air Raid Precautions Department HQ in Dina House.
On the 12 December 1941 during the battle for Hong Kong, Barbara records that Bonnie Penny and Mrs Bird joined her office staff. Both had just come from Kowloon when evacuated.
‘We secretaries worked in two shifts – Peggy and I, the Bonnie and Charles. Our job was to keep a log of events, mostly messages per phone calls, and also to make out identification cards for ARP people.’
After Hong Kong fell, they ended up with some 2000 others in the civilian internment camp at Stanley, 7 miles away, ‘in cramped accommodation: camp beds with little bedding, no hot water for washing ourselves or our clothes. Food consisted of rice, vegetables, and sometimes minute quantities of meat or fish; no desserts. Most of us had lost our homes and possessions through bombing and shelling – or looting after surrender on Christmas Day.’
After the War ended, Bonnie and Charles had a happy reunion in Stanley Camp with Mildred together with Bonnie’s parents, Florence and James Robinson, who had also survived internment. Sadly Bonnie’s husband Richard had been lost at sea when the Lisbon Maru went down.
As Mildred was in urgent need of repatriation, Charles volunteered to take over the running of the Home and defer her recuperation (until 1946 when Mildred returned). Bonnie was repatriated together with her parents to Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, not far from Mildred in Mundon. In due course Bonnie picked up with a government secretarial post back in Hong Kong.
In 1952 Mildred set up for a second time in Hong Kong in 2 bungalows in the New Territories. As numbers increased and bigger premises were needed, Bonnie went with her to look at the Old Police Station at Shatin. They decided it would suit very well and together made plans for its use and renovation. So the Shatin Babies' Home came into being, which flourished for 13 years, until the government took responsibility for foundlings in the Colony.
In 1966 when Mildred relocated again back to the UK with a household of 25, Bonnie ‘did much of the spadework’ in Hong Kong along with Charles Bird and Pat Best at the UK end, and she was part of final preparations before saying a last goodbye.
Stolen Childhoods - Nicola Tyrer
Bonnie Penny and Charlotte Bird both get a mention in Nicola Tyrer’s ‘Stolen Childhoods’ account of the war. In Stanley Camp high standards of education were quickly established because of the number of highly qualified teachers who had been interned. School chairs and desks* given by the Red Cross were used, and when academic training ended, youngsters moved into professional training.
Bill Macauley found himself being taught by Bonnie and Charlotte, who had been his ARP supervisors during the battle of Hong Kong, when he had been a messenger - ‘Before the war they had run a secretarial school. I was taught Pitman short-hand and book-keeping. We made makeshift keyboards from scraps of wood, all marked out with the QWERTY keyboard. At the end of six months we were tested and awarded a certificate. Those skills proved useful. After the war I was in the RAF and working on the section recruiting potential clerks and marking all their typing papers. The WAAF tester thought I was as good as her. She was stunned when I told her I learned all my skills in a prison camp!’
Bonnie and Charlotte were certainly good teachers.
* The Hattori Memorandum of 1943 records 30 school desks and chairs.
Husband of Bonnie Robinson - Richard Penny
Bonnie married Richard Penny circa 1939/40. He was serving in the armed forces in Hong Kong. He was one of those lost on the Lisbon Maru when it was sunk on 1st Oct 1942.
From The Yip Family of Amah Rock - Jill Doggett.