< Back to Quilts

Changi Prison Girl Guides

  • Owner:
    Sheila Bruhn
  • Location:
    Imperial War Museum, London UK
  • Maker:
    Changi Prison Girl Guides
  • Pattern:
    Patchwork
  • Pattern:
    Pieced
  • Pattern:
    Coverlet
  • Pattern:
    Community
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 188
    Width: 96

History

The quilt was made by Girl Guides in Changi prison camp in 1942. Elizabeth Ennis, who started the project, took the quilt to Scotland with her when she left the camp in 1945 after the war ended. 'Trish' Ennis gave it to the present owner, Sheila Bruhn, in April 2001 and it is now with Sheila in Australia. This Girl Guide quilt was put together by a group of girls in Changi Prison. The guide group was started by Elizabeth Ennis, an army nursing sister, with the help of a young Dutch girl, Trude van Roode. There were about 20 to 30 girls between 8 and 13 and they collected oddments of material in the camp. The girls' names are recorded on the quilt. Not long after being given the quilt, Sheila Bruhn flew with it to London to present it to the Imperial War Museum. It was briefly part of a display of famous quilts at the Victoria and Albert Museum but is now in storage and avilable to view on request at the nearby Imperial War Museum. On her way to present it, Sheila Bruhn met up in England with another of the few remaining survivors of the Changi Prison Camp, Sheila Martin (nee Summers) who embroidered one of the squares of the Girl Guides Quilt. Sadly another of those interned who is also mentioned in the book, Jean Summers, (Sheila Martin's sister) passed away shortly before Sheila Bruhn arrived in the UK

Description

Quilt constructed of blocks of hexagons with 72 'flower' rosettes made from plain and printed cotton scraps. The centre of each rosette has the name of one of the Girl Guides embroidered on it. The one in the centre of the quilt has the Trefoil insignia outlined in satin stitch. The background is white hexagons. There is no padding and it is backed with white cotton. 1880 x 960mm

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *