Sybil Medan Kathigasu was born on 3 September 1899 in Medan, Sumatra, in what was then the Dutch East Indies. She was the daughter of Joseph Daly, an Irish-Eurasian planter, and Beatrice Matilda Daly (née Martin), a French-Eurasian midwife. Sybil was the fifth child and the only daughter in her family.
Trained as a nurse and midwife, she met her husband Dr. Arumugam K Pillay (later known by his Christian name Dr. Abdon Clement Kathigasu) while working at the General Hospital in Kuala Lumpur. Together with her husband, they opened a clinic at 141 Brewster Road (now Jalan Sultan Idris Shah) in Ipoh, beginning in 1926. Sybil was an equal partner in this practice, taking care of house calls and midwifery. However, with the Japanese invasion of Malaya during World War II, the Kathigasus fled to the nearby town of Papan just before Japanese forces took control of Ipoh.
In Papan, the couple resided at 74 Main Street, where they continued their medical practice while covertly assisted the resistance. They kept hidden a shortwave radio, nicknamed ‘Josephine’, to listen to BBC broadcasts, and discreetly provided medical supplies, treatment, and information to those fighting against the Japanese occupation including the communist guerrillas. In 1943, their activities were discovered, leading to their arrest and torture.
Despite facing horrendous torture and interrogations by the Japanese military police, Sybil Kathigasu remained resolute. She was sentenced to a lifetime imprisonment under the Japanese military court. Following the fall of the Japanese Military administration in Malaya in August 1945, the MPAJA ensured the Kathigasus release and Sybil was reunited with her family. She was then flown to London for medical treatment. Her injury from the beatings were so severe that she was no longer able to walk.
During her time in Britain, she began writing her memoir. She died in June 1948 at 49 years old, succumbing to septicaemia from an injury that was inflicted by the Japanese military police. Her body was buried in Lanark, Scotland but was later brought back to Ipoh in 1949 and reburied at the Roman Catholic cemetery in St Michael’s Church on Brewster Road.
In recognition of her bravery, Sybil was awarded the George Medal for Gallantry in 1947 by King George VI. A road, Jalan Sybil Kathigasu, in Fair Park, Ipoh, was named after Kathigasu after independence to commemorate her bravery.
For more information read Sybil Kathigasu’s memoir: No Dram of Mercy.