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A copy of Nias's account of his wartime service in Malaya. He was involved in demolition work during the retreat to Singapore. After its fall he and a number of comrades escaped in a dinghy and an old yacht, reaching Sumatra, from whence he was evacuated to Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom (6 sheets). Nias’s diary was published in ‘British Malaya’, June 1942, 16-17. The collection is accompanied by a letter from Professor A. L. McLeod to Hugh Bryson.

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355 x 267 mm. A view of a Battak village in a jungle clearing with houses made from woven fibres, standing on stilts and with elaborately constructed pointed thatched roofs. With groups of villagers seated at the entrance to a house and in the open walled building in the centre of the print.

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354 x 267 mm. A general view of a Battak village set among palm trees, with a raised granary in the centre of the clearing.

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353 x 267 mm. Showing a group of villagers with two Battak houses in the background.

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354 x 267 mm. Showing a group of Battak women posed on a wooden platform, some holding the wooden poles used for pounding the rice, others with shallow baskets used for winnowing.

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279 x 208 mm. A view looking across the Deli River toward the bridge and small settlement of thatched houses. Exact location unidentified.

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260 x 195 mm. View looking along an unidentified tree-lined street in Padang in western Sumatra.

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273 x 209 mm. A view from roadway looking towards partially cleared jungle. The Tjinta Radja [i.e. Raja ?] Estate, in the Batang Sarangan District of Langkat, was owned in 1887 by E. Borring and E. Niederer, and managed by the latter. Its size in that year was 2000 acres.

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358 x 268 mm. A view looking along the driveway towards the large thatched bungalow, with servants quarters behind. The Dutch Controller of the district (C.A. Kroesen in 1887) is presumably one of the two figures standing in front of the house. Binjai is situated 12 miles east of Medan.

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354 x 268 mm. A view looking along the Sarangan River towards the custom house and the wharf, with steamers moored at the river bank.

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267 x 208 mm. A view looking down on the Deli River, with thick jungle on either bank.

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274 x 208 mm. A view looking along the Deli River towards a village situated on the bank where the river curves.

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Copy of a diary by Oppenheim describing the retreat of the army to Singapore, the city's surrender and his escape initially by sail boat to Sumatra, Sri Lanka and then Bombay. The diary is anonymous, but Mortimer Hay, who also participated in the escape, has identified its author as Oppeneheim, based upon internal evidence and comparisons of its manuscript with Oppenheim's handwriting. For Hay's account see RCMS 103/12/4.

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This is a copy of a diary describing Hay’s active service during the Malayan campaign, beginning with his joining the battery in mid-Dec. 1941. He saw action at Kuala Selangor and during the siege of Singapore. After its surrender, he escaped by ship on 16 Feb., reaching Sumatra on 21 Feb. and then Sri Lanka on 1 Mar. 1942. See RCMS 103/12/3 for another account of the same escape written by H.R. Oppenheim (21 sheets).

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241 x 188 mm. View looking along an unidentified village street in Sumatra. On the left is an impressive house built from wooden panels with decorative inlay work and with a thatched roof with upturned pointed gables.

Scope and Contents From the Fonds: The collection was originally housed in seven boxes, four of which were specially made with individual slots for slides. These were numbered 3, 6, 10 and 11 and the remaining boxes were unnumbered. Presumably these formed part of a larger collection, but nothing is known of the original owner or the fate of any other boxes. For conservation reasons, the collection has since been re-boxed. The captions given are normally those which appear on the slides themselves. They have been used as...

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275 x 194 mm. General view of Emmahaven and the surrounding inlet. Now known as Telukbayur, the harbour is situated four miles south of the town of Padang.

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274 x 205 mm. View looking along a wharf at Emmahaven, with a steam vessel moored in the foreground.

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354 x 267 mm. A view looking across the Binjai River (the town of Binjai is situated 12 miles west of Medan) with the ferry moored at the bank in the foreground. A small pony trap stands on the ferry which is constructed from two canoes covered by a wooden platform. The vessel which crosses by means of the line running from bank to bank.

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352 x 267 mm. A view looking across the river towards bungalows situated in a clearing on the far side. Two white uniformed Europeans are seated in a pony trap at the ford, while other figures watch the photographer from the bank. Balawen Deli lies at the mouth of the Deli River 15 miles north of Medan near Labuan Deli. The Soengal River has not been traced and is either possibly another name for the Deli, a tributary of that river, or a mis-spelling of the Sarangan River.

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354 x 267 mm. Showing a group of Battak men, women and children posed in front of a house. Precise location of Low Melgup is unidentified.

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353 x 267 mm. Showing a group of labourers at the edge of a tobacco field, with a long thatched building in the background. This is probably the Padana Djirmin Estate, a small plantation of 666 acres (in 1887) in the Selesse District. Owned by the Langkat Plantations Company and managed by A. Menzies.

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354 x 268 mm. A group photograph of Javanese men, women and children (probably tobacco estate workers) posed against a background of vegetation.

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287 x 231 mm. Showing a group of Kling (Tamil) men, women and children posed against a background of forest vegetation. Wright (1910) records a Bindjey Estate under the ownership of the Bindjey [i.e. Binjai] Tobacco Company. This company was not established until 1907 however, so this photograph would have been taken when the plantation was under an earlier owner.

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278 x 208 mm. A view looking along a street in Klambir with wooden houses with verandahs on the first floor overhanging the walkway beneath. Klambir is another name for Tanjong Poera (also spelt Tanjungpura and Tandjoengpoera), situated near the mouth of the Sarangan River 30 miles north-west of Medan and the seat of the Sultan of Langkat.