BENTLEY May

It has not been possible to locate any records relating to May Bentley other than those given by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The following information has been researched by and is courtesy and copyright of Michael Pether:
The ’SS Kuala’ had left Singapore Harbour at about 1830 hrs. on 13 February 1942 and was proceeding towards Pom Pong Island where it would anchor during the day of the 14 February and try and camouflage itself with branches and vegetation taken from that uninhabited island.

Whilst the boarding of the “Kuala” in Singapore was chaotic with little organization and no apparent passenger list; there were strong group dynamics at work amongst the people who boarded. They were in many cases those with strong links and had known each other for years through family ties, sporting associations (particularly golf at the Singapore Golf Club and tennis) in Singapore or through business links. Many of the people on board represented both Europeans and Chinese in the top echelon of the Singapore business world and the Singapore Municipality; and also, some of Northern Malaya’s oldest European families who persisted with staying in Singapore in the belief it would never fall.

An example of such group dynamics is that of 30 women organizing a ‘Flag Day’ appeal in 1936 for the St Andrews Mission hospital (Morning Tribune 4.7.36) no less than seven of these women boarded the ‘SS Kuala’ in 1942 – Mrs. Hyde, Mrs. Potts, Mrs. Hancock, Mrs. Dawson, Mrs. Jageo and Mrs. Hill.

‘SS Kuala’ reached an isolated and uninhabited island by the name of Pulau Pom Pong in the Rhio Archipelago early on the morning of 14 February and anchored some 400 metres off the shore and some 100 metres astern of the ‘SS Tien Kwang’, which had a large complement of RAF and civilian men on board. The ship was spotted by Japanese bombers who proceeded to attack the ship, killing many of those onboard. Those who managed to escape were targeted as they swam towards the island, others were carried out to sea never to be seen again.

Kathleen Hyde was one of those who made it to the beach on Pom Pong island where she was picked up with around 200 other survivors by the SS Tanjong Pinang during the night of the 16th/17th February.

After steaming all day, the ship was stopped at sea – approximately 30 miles north of the Tanjung Ular lighthouse (i.e., off the north-west coast of the large Indonesian island named Banka Island off the east coast of Sumatra) that evening of the 17 February at around 2030/2130 hrs. by a warning shot across its bows and a bluish searchlight being trained upon it. Then, whilst some women and children were being lowered in the ship’s only two small row boats (there were no real lifeboats), the Japanese warship (possibly a destroyer but variously recorded as a submarine or torpedo boat) opened fire at point blank range whilst its searchlights were trained on the “Tandjong Pinang”, directly hitting the starboard side ship’s boat which was being lowered full of women and children and setting the ship on fire. It is clear that the ship sank within five to ten minutes, inevitably taking down with it many of its women and children passengers who had been trapped or killed in the cargo hold and cabins.

Out of (and this can only be a “guesstimate”) the 60 – 70 women, children, babies and men who might have managed to get off the ship, only about 15 adults and two teenagers are known to have reached land or been picked up at sea. For those who managed to leave the “Tandjong Pinang” the flotation devices were only four small rafts (initially with about 40 people both on them and hanging on to the edges at one stage), a pram dinghy, two ‘small boats’ plus a Carley raft.

The survivors, who appear to have been only those who got onto the Carley floats and rafts, then, faced a cruel and tortuous fate with most dying at sea over the next week.