The Iconic Changi Quilts

The Memorial is interested in making contact with the relatives or contributors to the famous Changi quilts.  If you can provide more information about the women who made these quilts please contact info@awm.gov.au. 

When Singapore fell on 15 February 1942, 400 women and children were interned. The quilts were the idea of Mrs Ethel Mulvaney. Supposedly made for the wounded in Changi hospitals, the quilts were actually meant to relieve boredom, to boost morale, and to pass information to other camps. Three quilts were made, one each for the Red Cross organisations of Britain, Australia and Japan. 

The Australian War Memorial is privileged to hold two of these quilts, the Australian Quilt  [REL/14235] and the Japanese Quilt [RELAWM32526].  The quilt for the British Red Cross was taken to England after the war.

Dozens of women contributed to the quilts, embroidering or appliquéing small pieces of salvaged material which were then combined to create the three quilts.  According to one of contributors, Sheila Bruhn (nee Allen) “You could call them signature quilts, but they are also more than that, for they represent the thoughts and hopes of these women, linking them to the nearby Prisoners of War, some of whom were their husbands, to the Girl Guide movement and to the Red Cross Society”. A fourth quilt, the Girl Guide Quilt, constructed from blocks of hexagons, is held by the Imperial War Museum in London.

A full description of the quilts, their history and a detailed description of the Australian quilt, panel by panel, is available on the Australian War Memorial’s online Encyclopaedia. Below is an alphabetical listing of those who contributed to the quilts held by the Australian War Memorial, the quilt in which their work is sewn, the square number and a description of each square: