Elizabeth Choy
Elizabeth Choy (9 November 1910 – 14 September 2006) was a Singaporean educator and councilor who was considered a military hero in her home country. When the Japanese captured Singapore during World War II, she and her husband, Choy Khun Heng, sent medicine, money, and messages to prisoners of war detained in Changi Prison.
Choy served as a second lieutenant in the Singapore Volunteer Corps' women's auxiliary arm during the Japanese invasion of Malaya, earning her the nickname "Gunner Choy." She was also a Medical Auxiliary Service volunteer nurse. After the fall of Singapore in 1942, the Choys established a restaurant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where all the patients and physicians had been relocated from the Miyako Hospital (previously Woodbridge Hospital), and soon began a regular ambulance run for British civilian internees.
During the ensuing Double Tenth Incident, an informant informed the Kempeitai (Japanese military police) that the Choys were involved in smuggling money into Changi Prison, resulting in Choy's husband's incarceration. Choy went to the Kempeitai East District Branch after a few days to inquire about her husband. The Japanese denied knowing him, but she was enticed back to the branch three weeks later and imprisoned with other inmates. Choy was invited by Lady Mountbatten to witness the official Japanese surrender ceremony in Singapore in September 1945, where she was escorted by the governor, Sir Shenton Thomas, and his wife, to whom she had provided medicine in Changi Prison.
The Choys were welcomed to England to recover after the war. During their visit, Lady Baden-Powell bestowed the Girl Guides' highest honor, the Bronze Cross, on her, while Rajah of Sarawak Charles Brooke bestowed the Order of the Star of Sarawak on her. In June 1946, the Choys were appointed Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). They were recognized for their assistance to British prisoners of war in Malaya during the Japanese occupation. Choy was also granted a half-hour private meeting with Queen Elizabeth at St James's Palace on July 25, 1946. When Choy returned to Singapore in 1949, he resumed his teaching career and became involved in the political activities leading up to Singapore's independence. Choy died in 2006 at the age of 95 from pancreatic cancer.
