Photo taken in 1936 shows Farrelly (wearing suit) with a sports team in Kuching. Behind him, on his left, was Lascelles. This shot was taken after they had just returned from a sports match in Miri.
THE return of George Alfred Farrelly to Sarawak in early 1942 had been a mystery for Marietta Coney for many years.
By that time, the Japanese had already occupied Miri, following the imperial army’s landing on Brighton Beach on Dec 16, 1941.
Yet about a month after that, Coney’s cousin Farrelly was on his way to Sarawak.
She often wondered what made him come back.
Coney said Farrelly’s brother and sister-in-law had attempted to solve this mystery about 20 years ago, but failed to reach any conclusion due to lack of facilities and documentation in Sarawak.
Late last year, Coney picked up the search and sought out to find clues, which she did by reaching out to her Sarawak expatriate friends and also fellow members of the number of Facebook groups that she was in.
The man, GA Farrelly
Farrelly was born in Wellington, New Zealand. In the mid-1920s, he qualified as a surveyor and had an exciting opportunity to pursue his career in Miri.
Sarawak, back then, was still under the rule of the White Rajah – at the time, the third Rajah, Charles Vyner Brooke governed.
In a letter sent by Farrelly’s father William to his sister (Farrelly’s aunt) in the United States, the former spoke about how his son ‘took a job in Sarawak in 1932’.
“George is a surveyor and got an opportunity of a good position out east in the Malay States; out there eight years, home twice – eight months’ leave every four years.”
The Farrellys in this vintage photo taken in New Zealand, where George Farrelly stood at second right among his siblings.
According to some articles in Sarawak Gazette, Farrelly was hailed as ‘a good surveyor’ and later on, he was promoted to ‘Assistant Superintendent of Land and Survey’.
It was reported that he had served in different divisions across Sarawak since his arrival.
George Kana, an Iban in his 50s from Kuching, shared with the writer about his grandfather having a land parcel in Lubok Nibong with a ‘Lease of State Land’ certificate – dated May 1, 1939 – signed by Farrelly.
Photo shows the copy of ‘Lease of State Land’ forwarded by George Kana, who has helped in searching for information about Farrelly.
“At the time, he (Farrelly) was the Land and Survey Assistant Superintendent for Miri Division,” said George Kana.
He added that his grandfather, who hailed from Sungei Ruan in Roban, was among the pioneers to open up the undeveloped areas across Bukit Engkabang in Lubok Nibong, a large settlement in Baram that had housed many Iban and Foochow Chinese communitis since 1926.
“My grandfather was keen on planting padi and rubber trees, together with his fellow Iban pioneer settlers. They were issued each with a ‘Rubber Estate Registration Certificate’ in May 1925, and the document held validity for four plots of land being planted with rubber trees.
“In 1939, these certificates were replaced with the ‘Lease of State Land’ documents, signed by Mr Farrelly, the Land and Survey superintendent at the time.
“This meant that all the land parcels must have been ordered by him to be surveyed before the issuance of the documents.
“I could assume that Mr Farrelly had travelled to Baram quite a bit. Actually, the Land and Survey Department Sarawak headquarters has Farrelly’s name on their records,” said George Kana.
Farrelly, shown in this photo taken in 1939 when he was the Land and Survey superintendent in Miri.
That ‘Lease of State Land’ document indicated that Farrelly was in Miri until 1941, just before he headed back to New Zealand for his second eight-month leave under his eight-year tenure in Sarawak.
Another indicator was a wedding that took place at St Columba’s Church in Miri on April 26, 1941.
The event, where the church officiated at the union of one Daniel Lascelles and his bride Joy Burr, was regarded as the ‘wedding of the decade’ for the small community of expatriates there, so much so that it was highlighted on Sarawak Gazette – the publication commissioned by Rajah Charles Brooke right after the establishment of the Sarawak Government Printing Office in 1870.
It was also recorded that Farrelly was Lascelles’ best man.
Reaching out via Facebook group
In her post on ‘History of Miri’ Facebook page, uploaded on Dec 22, 2022, Coney titled it as ‘George Farrelly, Casualty of WW2, Resident of Miri’.
She spoke about her cousin still working in Miri at the end of 1940.
Coney, now in her mid-50s, wrote: “On 7th December 1941, the Japanese had declared war in the Pacific by bombing Pearl Harbour, and two months later in February, (the Japanese) had brought the war down to Darwin (in Australia), bombing the city and then taking over Singapore.
“In between these two events, George had been back in New Zealand on Furlough, and I don’t know why he was returning back to Borneo, with all the uncertainties, on the 30th January 1942, (when) the Japanese had already landed on Miri.
“Maybe it was a mercy dash to save a young lady whom he had fallen in love with, for the reason that he was flying into a war zone is very puzzling… It must have been a life-and-death situation for him to risk going back.”
Coney said in researching this history, she found out that a plane was flying from Darwin to Kupang in West Timor, en route to Surabaya in Indonesia to pick up refugees and transport them to Australia.
“The seaplane was a Short S.23 Empire Flyingboat (Corio) leased by the British Overseas Corporation.
“When it was 13 nautical miles (24km) from West Timor, travelling at a height of 400 feet (120m), the Corio was fired on by seven Mitsubishi A6M Zerofighters.
“(The pilot) Capt AA Koch immediately increased the speed of the aircraft and dived it towards the coast, attempting to evade the attack.
Capt Koch, the pilot of the Corio who survived the crash.
“The aircraft reached its maximum speed – possibly 200 miles per hour (320km/h) – and flew a zig-zagging course, so low that the airliner’s wing floats were bouncing off the sea.
“Nevertheless, the Zero (Japanese) pilots soon achieved numerous hits, perforating the fuselage and killing some passengers (on board the Corio).
“Following a sudden loss of power when the two engines caught fire, Corio hit the sea at high speed, nose first, three nautical miles (5.6 km) from the mouth of the Noelmini River, with the impact breaking the fuselage in half.
“Out of a total of 18 passengers and crew members, 13 were killed in the attack.
Old photo of the Corio, which was shot down by the Japanese fighters.
“Capt Koch, wounded in arm and leg, was thrown out of the wreckage by the impact. However, he managed to swim ashore, a feat that took him three hours.
“He and the other survivors were later rescued by a Dornier Do 24 flyingboat of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Three passengers and two crew were saved.
“Sadly, George was one of the passengers who perished.
“What the family would love to know (is) if George did leave behind in Miri a wife and children; if anybody would know (about this) or could direct me to where to look, that would be great.
“Thank you,” wrote Coney.
Digging deeper
A question kept popping up in Coney’s mind: “Did my cousin marry a local woman and have a family?”
She did run searches on St Columba’s Church Miri, in view of Farrelly being a member of the Church of England, but it came to nought.
The war had ‘flattened’ Miri, destroying many, if not all, documents including those on marriage registrations.
It was known that the St Columba’s Marriage Registry was only revived in 1949, making it impossible to trace any marriage registered before the war.
Even if Farrelly had married officially before the war, there would have been no record here – unless he had sent the original copy somewhere else where it still exists.
Moreover, according to a Miri lawyer Wendel Crocker, a marriage between a Brooke-era officer and a local woman could not be registered, even in the Anglican Church at that time.
A 1920 photo of the St Columba’s Church in Miri, where Lascelles got married in 1941 – with Farrelly recorded as being the best man.
“This makes it even harder to find evidence,” said Wendel, a great-grandson of William Maunder Crocker, who once operated a sago factory in Mukah and was also a British administrator who had served in Sabah, where the famed Crocker Range was named after him.
Wendel’s grandfather, Harold Brooke Crocker, had served under the Brooke government and was the Food Controller of Sarawak for many years.
William Crocker married an Iban woman from Sarawak’s Second Division (now Sri Aman) and this marriage was not recognised.
“Indeed, Brooke officers were only allowed to get married after eight years of service under the Rajah government. The Second Rajah had encouraged only bachelors to work in Sarawak as he believed that the life conditions might be too tough for their families,” said Wendel.
Enlightening feedback
Coney’s post on ‘History of Miri’ garnered many responses, which she was really thankful for.
However, one of the Facebook group members, Judy Pearson (Noakes), wrote a very enlightening comment about Farrelly’s return to Sarawak in 1942.
A photo accompanying Coney’s post on ‘History of Miri’, which shows a page from ‘The Argus’ – an Australian daily morning newspaper in Melbourne. Dated Wednesday, Feb 4, 1942, the news listed all the passengers and crew members on that fateful flight, including Farrelly.
“If you would like to find out why George Farrelly returned to Sarawak, please read on,” wrote Pearson at the start of her post in the comments’ section.
“The information came from J Gilbert’s secret report entitled ‘Account of the Japanese Invasion of Sarawak and Our Journey through Borneo and Dutch East India to Australia and India’. It is in the UK National Archives FCO 141/12402.
“George Farrelly was one of six who were put at the disposal of the Southern Pacific Command.
“The plan was for them to return to Sarawak A.S.A.P. to recruit natives to gather information, which would then be sent back to Command.
“J Gilbert referred to this as ‘a most foolhardy scheme’ and told Pitt-Hardacre (Cecil Pitt-Hardacre, then-Acting Treasurer of Sarawak, as shown on record at the time) so.
“However, it appeared that in order for Pitt-Hardacre to get a plane to evacuate the Sarawak people from Pontianak, he had to agree to send men into Sarawak to recruit natives to gather intelligence. It looked as though Pitt-Hardacre was between a rock and a hard place, and the end result was devastating.
“How did we find this information? Prof Peggy Day is a Canadian university professor teaching at the University of Winnipeg. She has been working on the Japanese Occupation years in Sarawak and more specifically, the Batu Lintang POW (Prisoners of War) Camp,” wrote Pearson.
She had asked Prof Day if the latter had come across Farrelly’s name in her research, to which the professor replied: ‘No’.
“However, she happened to come across a document referring to ‘G Farrelly’, and we were finally able to work out why George Farrelly was returning to Sarawak,” said Pearson.
It was highly likely that Farrelly must have signed an agreement of strict confidentiality – meaning, he must never reveal the mission to anyone, including his family.
Coney was informed about this latest finding via email.
“Friends are hopeful that the family might get some more information to bring this search to a closure.
“It’s really been quite a journey to find good information with the help of Prof Day, Mrs Judy Pearson (Noakes), Mike Kueh (a member of History of Miri Facebook group) and George Kana,” said Coney, who is currently in New Zealand.