ABSTRACT
A British serviceman named John W. Davies was travelling on a bus through the streets of colonial Singapore with his wife and eight-year-old daughter. What seemed to be a calm evening was suddenly disrupted by a confrontation with rioters who were infuriated by a British court’s decision that a Dutch-Muslim girl named Maria Hertogh was to be restored to her Christian parents. Europeans and Eurasians in the colony were thus perceived as enemies of Islam. Davies was dragged out of the bus and assaulted by the roadside. In desperation, he jumped into a drain in a futile attempt to hide, but the rioters overcame him and subjected him to a vicious attack. While the serviceman’s wife and daughter were left unscathed in the course of mass violence that spread rapidly across the island, Davies was left mortally wounded. His death, along with the deaths of many others who were either victims or perpetrators of violence, marked a new epoch in the history of one of Britain’s most important colonies.
