Sybil Kathigasu

Sybil Medan Kathigasu, who lived from 1899 to 1948, was a Malayan Eurasian nurse and midwife who supported the resistance during the Japanese occupation of Malaya. Born in Medan, Sumatra, she trained in nursing and midwifery and, with her husband Dr. Abdon Clement Kathigasu, ran a clinic in Ipoh from 1926. During the occupation they secretly supplied medicines, medical care and news from shortwave radio to guerrillas of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army. Arrested in 1943, she was tortured by the Kempeitai and imprisoned until the liberation, then flown to Britain for treatment, where she wrote her memoir No Dram of Mercy. She received the George Medal shortly before her death and is the only Malayan woman to hold it.