Embroidered skirt made by female internees in Changi Gaol, May 1942

Short, fine white linen circular dance skirt with left side placket opening fastened by a single press stud and a waistband fastened by two metal hooks and eyes. Down the front are listed 19 numbers performed at a concert given on 2 May 1942, by some of the civilian women interned in Changi Gaol by the Japanese. The concert programme has been written in pencil and then over-embroidered - the first nine numbers in red and the last nine numbers on grey/brown. The programme reads, 'No. 1 Darkies Sunday School/Angela & Company; No.2 Mary Scott Recitation; No.3 Sailors Hornpipe/ Billie Mary Xenia; No.4 Sheila/ Little Flo's Letter; No.5 Ringah Faddah/ Nara Billy; No.6 Tango/ Angela and Company; No.7 Chinese Fan Dance by Mary; No.8 XENIA/ Of the liquid notes; No.9 The Changi Stroll/ Hilda Barbour Mike Kent Sue Williams Mrs Rattray; No.10 Keep fit Girls/ Rona Mary Billie Xenia Angela; No.11 Spanish Dance/ Iris Parfitt; No.12 Valse Fantasia/ Nara. Rona. Dorothy. Billy. Xenia. Mary. Judy. Tess. Matt. Angela; No.13 Jo. Cribbens./ Uke & Songs; No.14 Tap solo by Billie; No.15 Angela. India Dance (by request); No.16 Miss Medwyn/ Impersonations; No.17 Hilda Barbour & her Hummingbirds; No.18 Gipsy Dance Mary/Billie/Xenia; No.19 PRISON SONG/ Angela & Coy./ God save the King'. The front waistband, front sides and entire back of the skirt are covered with approximately 400 signatures of the female inmates, including some of the children (girls under 21, and boys 12 and under), which have been alternately over embroidered in red and grey/brown. Two of the signatures have been left in pencil on the right front.

This skirt was prepared by Mrs Angela Kronin in 1942, and was signed by the majority of the civilian women (about 400) interned by the Japanese in Changi Gaol in March 1942, after the fall of Singapore on 15 February of that year. Mrs Kronin, then in her early forties was a dancer, teacher of dance, performer and great organiser, and was one of the driving forces behind the concerts performed by the women in the Gaol in 1942-1943. Some of the concerts were performed in the presence of the civilian men interned in other sections of the gaol. The programme for the first concert performed, on 2 May 1942, in aid of the Red Cross, has been embroidered down the centre front of the skirt, and it is possible that Mrs Kronin asked the audience of women to sign the skirt directly after the performance of this concert. The pencilled names and programme were subsequently over-embroidered. Sheila Allan, an Australian internee, who was then seventeen, performed item 4, 'Little Flo's Letter', and also danced in item 6 'Tango/ Angela and Company'.

Although Mrs Kronin was not Australian she emigrated to Western Australia after the Second World War with her husband, Karl Kronin, who had served in the colonial police force in Singapore and had also been interned by the Japanese. In her later years she lived at Swan Cottage Homes in Perth, and this skirt was prominently displayed there. The image of the nominal role of the adult women interned in Changi, which is attached to this record, was compiled in 1943 by the Malayan Representation in India. The roll lists women over 21 years and over and apparently omits the names of Dutch women in the prison. The spellings of names and occupations of the women are not entirely accurate.