CROYDON CHRONICLES: In his latest delve into the archives, DAVID MORGAN recalls the life of a missionary, the daughter of a former Mayor of Croydon, who worked in China, Malaysia and South Africa, and survived almost four years in the notorious Changi prison
The name “Foss” was one that many Croydon residents in the late 1890s would have been aware. Frederick Foss was a solicitor, a Justice of the Peace, an Alderman and a local politician. In various documents, he is described as living at Woodcroft, Croydon.
In 1883 he was town clerk – a position that has been replaced by council chief executive – and in 1892 he was that year’s civic mayor.
Foss had a family of 13 children. Josephine, who was born in 1887, was the sixth of them.
Frederick Foss’s death in 1908 had a significant impact on Josephine. Instead of going to university, as planned, she decided instead to go to St Boniface Missionary College in Warminster.
‘Alderman Foss’: Josephine’s father was a significant figure in Croydon at the end of the 19th Century
Josephine had long realised the importance of education. Her name appeared several times in a list of prize winners for Central Croydon Polytechnic in Scarbrook Road in November 1907. Before going to college, she had attended Woodford House School in Dingwall Road.
At St Boniface, while learning about missionary work, Foss also studied methods of teaching children using the Froebel method, learning through practical and purposeful play.
In 1914, the Anglican bishop of North China, Francis Lushington Norris, advertised for a teacher at St Faith’s School for girls and Chung Teh School for boys in Peking, as Beijing was called then.
Foss responded to the advertisement, though this was far from a straightforward calling. Europe was on the brink of war, while in China just a few years earlier, the Boxer Uprising had seen a backlash against Europeans, with hundreds of missionaries and their families killed and thousands of Chinese Christians murdered.
Seemingly undaunted, Josephine Foss journeyed overland by train, across Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway to reach the Chinese capital. Stopping off at Moscow Station, she noticed that the makers’ name on the station clock was Gillett and Johnston. She told her colleague that must be a good omen. “They are from my hometown, Croydon.”
On arrival in China, Foss quickly learned enough Mandarin to begin to teach handicraft and science to her new pupils.
As her Chinese improved, she travelled more widely, encouraging families to enrol their children in local mission schools.
But just as this work was expanding and more teachers were being sought, Foss contracted tuberculosis. Prayers were offered for her recovery by the Vicar of Croydon at the conclusion one of the Croydon Society for the Propagation of the Gospel meetings in 1917.
Foss’s time in China was being followed closely in Croydon. Her illness did not improve, though, and she was forced to return to Britain in 1919. She thought that would be the end of her overseas exploits. But she was very wrong.
In 1924, by now aged 36, Foss received a new assignment. The Bishop of Singapore wanted her to become headteacher of Pudu English School in Kuala Lumpur. Foss would be headteacher for 17 distinguished years, establishing the school as a beacon for girls’ education.
Sports and a curriculum taught through the English language was what she successfully promoted, together with her Christian principles.
As well as her programmes at school, Foss was determined to influence the community. She regularly took on schemes and activities designed to improve the lives of locals, becoming a popular and respected figure.
She worked with the lepers at nearby Sungai Beloh, organising for a church to be built as well as personally ministering to the sick and the bereaved.
Controversial cutting: Josephine Foss was forced to apologise for her remarks in the Sunday Pictorial
As a reward for her work in education and welfare, in 1935 she was awarded the MBE by Sir Shenton Thomas, Governor of the Straits Settlements.
From time to time, Foss returned to England. In 1937, she stayed with her niece in Limpsfield. In the village she gave two talks on mission work in Malaya,.
Foss was back in Malaya in December 1941, as the Japanese invaded. She tried to arrange for the school staff and pupils to be evacuated to Singapore, but such was the speed of the advancing forces, that Foss and her group were captured. The whole school was taken to the Changi prison camp, which would become notorious for the incredibly harsh conditions inflicted on prisoners, even civilians and children.
Foss, though, was determined to see a way through the situation. She held daily prayer meetings and weekly services.
More than 850 men are known to have died in the brutal conditions of Changi jail during the Japanese occupation.
In 1944, Foss and most of the civilian prisoners were moved to Sime Road Camp, often recalled as Slime Road Camp, so that the thousands of military prisoners who had been building the Thai-Burma railway could be moved to Changi. One of her fellow prisoners at Sime Road was Sir Shenton Thomas.
Foss would remain in Sime Road until the end of the war in August 1945.
By the end of the hostilities, Foss was a physical shell of her former self, weighing just 5st. But she had survived.
After the surrender of the Japanese, Foss was taken to Madras and then to Bangalore for medical treatment and recovery. She wanted to go back to her school in Kuala Lumpur, but it was felt her health might not be robust enough. Pudu English School was reopened in 1947 with a new head, Mary Wood.
Initially after her recuperation, Foss accepted a position in South Africa where she was working in a school for Zulu children.
Foss, though, was drawn back to Asia, and in 1948 she became part of the colonial government of Malaya’s social welfare programme. Once again, Foss found herself in a war zone. What was euphemistically called “the Malayan Emergency” – a full-scale rebellion against British rule – was declared on June 17 1948.
Foss was instructed by the Colonial Office to train staff to work with the marginalised groups in society. Her knowledge of languages and customs helped her in this role. She was able to direct missionaries who had been expelled from China to work in the rural areas of Malaya and get them to discourage locals from assisting the insurgents.
She accompanied police and troops into combat, being required to translate or simply interrogate captured “bandits”. Not all of them were ruffians or thugs, Foss recalled.
Not Worth A Bullet: Foss’s memoir of a lifetime of missionary work and teaching, mostly in the Far East
In 1950, Foss was urged to apologise to Malay women for an article about her in the Sunday Pictorial in London, in which she claimed Malay children were groomed into prostitution from an early age with their mentors, usually Malay women, living a life of luxury on the earnings.
Foss retired from government service in 1952. Still not content to enjoy a leisurely retirement, she moved to Kuching, in the Crown Colony of Sarawak on Borneo, where she taught English and RE at St Thomas Secondary School. She even became head of the primary school and served on the government education committee.
Proper retirement came in 1957, when she was 70, when Foss settled down in London to write her memoirs. She entitled her book, Not Worth A Bullet – the memories of an old woman. She had been told that she was “not worth a bullet” by one of the guards at Changi.
In 1963, Foss returned to visit Pudu English School at the invitation of her former pupils.
Her final years were spent living in Douglas Waite House, a Marylebone Housing Association development in West Hampstead. In April 1970, the Queen Mother visited the house and Foss, who was the oldest resident, was chosen to present her with a bouquet.
Foss died in London in July 1983, aged 96. According to her dying wish, her body was taken to Singapore, where she was interred in St Andrew’s Cathedral, symbolic of her her lifelong bond with South East Asia.
In honour of her work in Malaysia, a street in Pudu was named after her, Jalan Foss, next to the schools which she helped to build and develop. Her father already had a street named after him, Foss Avenue, on the Waddon estate in Croydon.
Her father served the people of Croydon. His daughter took that notion of service further, spending her life teaching and educating in China, Malaysia and South Africa. If you ever visit the Anglican cathedral in Singapore, look out for the final resting place of a woman from Croydon.
David Morgan, pictured right, has been chronicling Croydon’s history for Inside Croydon for almost a decade. Morgan is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster, who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- ‘Cockney Wagner’ who wrote symphonies, waltzes and operas
- Mead’s Minster time to end after 32 years of church service
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
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