Elizabeth Choy
| Elizabeth Choy | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Yong Su-Moi 29 November 1910 Kudat, British North Borneo (present-day Kudat, Sabah, Malaysia) |
| Died | 14 September 2006 (aged 95) Singapore |
| Cause of death | Pancreatic cancer |
| Other names | "Dayak Woman of Singapore", "Gunner Choy" |
| Occupation | educator, councillor |
| Known for | heroics in Japanese-occupied Singapore during World War II |
| Spouse(s) | Choy Khun Heng |
| Parent(s) | Yong Thau Yin (father) |
| Relatives | Yong Sinn Siong (grandfather) Moo Enn Cong (grandmother) |
| Elizabeth Choy-Yong Su-Moi | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 蔡楊素梅 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 蔡杨素梅 | ||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Cài Yáng Sùméi |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | Coi3 Joeng4 Sou3-mui4 |
Elizabeth Choy (29 November 1910 – 14 September 2006), birth name Yong Su-Moi, OBE, was a Singaporean educator and councillor who is regarded as a war heroine in Singapore. Along with her husband, Choy Khun Heng, she supplied medicine, money and messages to prisoners-of-war interned in Changi Prison when Japanese-occupied Singapore during World War II.
Choy was born in a Hakka family in Kudat, Sabah, North Borneo. Her great-grandparents first came to Kudat from Hong Kong to assist German missionaries in their work. The eldest of 11 children, Choy's father worked as a civil servant after completing his early education in China with some English education in North Borneo, where he married the daughter of a priest. He transferred to work in Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu) and was later promoted to District Officer and he moved to Kalimantan.
Choy was raised 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 adopted the name "Elizabeth", and went on to pursue higher education in Raffles College (now the National University of Singapore) in Singapore. As her family could not afford the tuition fees, she started to teach, first at St Margaret's School and then at St Andrew's School.
In August 1941, she married Choy Khun Heng, employed by the Borneo Company.
During the Japanese invasion of Malaya, Choy served as a second lieutenant in the women's auxiliary arm of the Singapore Volunteer Corps, where she acquired the nickname "Gunner Choy". She was also a volunteer nurse with the Medical Auxiliary Service. After the fall of Singapore in 1942, the Choys set up a canteen at the , 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 prisoners-of-war interned in Changi Prison by passing to them cash and parcels containing fresh clothing, medicine and letters during their deliveries. They incurred further risk by sending in radio parts for hidden receivers until the Japanese crackdown following Operation Jaywick.
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Wikipedia