BIO
1925-2012
Sheila Muriel Ross passed away peacefully at her home in Pelican Waters on 31 October 2012 at the age of 87. Sheila and her husband Graham, who passed away in 2009, were members of our assoc for many years. She was born in Malaya and escaped the Japanese invasion to join the Air Force in Britain but returned to Malaya after the war. Sheila was a celebrated author of several books. Perhaps the most memorable of which is “A Log Across the Road” which dealt with several aspects of the Malayan Emergency. It was a subject that she and Graham were very familiar with having spent several years in that environment while he served as a police OCPD in North Borneo during the 50’s. Our condolences go to her family and friends. (http://www.nmbvaaofincorporatedaustralianstates.org/Nov%202012.pdf)
From rear flap of Five Days to Noon:
Sheila Ross was born in Malaya, the fourth generation on the female side to be born in the East. Her father was a rubber planter who was interned in Singapore during the war. She went to school in England and was on her summer holidays in Malaya when war broke out in 1939. She got out of Singapore during the last days of the fighting and made her way via Java, India and South Africa, to England where she joined the WAAF. She married in 1947, her husband Graham being in the then Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. He was posted to Singapore almost immediately and in 1950 retired on transfer to the Malayan Police. They did two tours in Malaya and in 1956 transferred to North Borneo, where they held the record of serving in more remote stations than any other police family. In 1967 they took advantage of the early retirement allowed through independence and came to Spain, where they have been ever since. Sheila Ross has one daughter, Christina -- also born in Malaya.
From rear flap of And Tomorrow Freedom:
Born in Malaya, Sheila Ross left Singapore two days before it fell to the Japanese. After service in the WAAF, she was commissioned in Intelligence, attached in the latter stages of the war to MI9, an inter-service unit concerned with POWs. Besides having access to much material used in the book, she was a member of a team of interrogators which went aboard the returning ships carrying released POWs.
After the war she remained in South East Asia where her husband served in the Malaya Police and then the North Borneo Police.
Sheila Ross is the author of five books.