Ethel Rogers Mulvany

Ethel Rogers was born on December 22, 1904 on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. After her birth mother died, she was adopted by Henry and Isabella Rogers. As a teenager, she began working as a teacher, and moved to Toronto and Montreal for additional education. == Work and marriage ==

In Toronto, Rogers became the director of a society for arts and literature, and in 1933 she set off on a tour of Asia in order to complete an educational survey for her society, She met a British army doctor named Denis Mulvany during her travels, and the couple were married in Lucknow, India, and also arranged to ship several Indian animals—such as tiger cubs—to Canada for public viewing, although within three months most of the animals had died due to illness, heat or other causes. Mulvany received a King's silver jubilee medal for her work at the Exhibition. Mulvany moved to Singapore with Denis in 1940, and she began volunteering with the Australian Red Cross. == Imprisonment at Changchi ==

In late 1941 the Japanese invaded Singapore, and more than 2000 civilians—including Mulvany and her husband—were subsequently imprisoned in Changi Prison. The men and women were separated, and prisoners struggled with severe hunger on a daily basis. Inspired by a poet from Newfoundland who had written about imagined feasts during the Great Depression, Mulvany began bringing together her fellow prisoners to swap remembered recipes and imagine elaborate meals and dinner menus; the exercise helped them retain hope and provided respite from the grim conditions. Mulvany scavenged the blank edges of old newspapers to write down the recipes, and eventually managed to persuade prison staff to give her two logbooks to write in. As another way to keep busy, Mulvany also helped organize a quilt-making project amongst the women, crafting blankets that would eventually be sent to nearby prisoner-of-war hospitals. The women included their signatures and images of personal significance in each quilt square as a way to communicate to loved ones that they were still alive. For the last six months of her imprisonment, Mulvany was kept in solitary confinement. She suffered torture by electric shocks. Upon her release when the prison was liberated in August 1945, the five-foot-seven Mulvany weighed only 85 pounds. == Return to Canada ==

After her liberation from the prison, Mulvany went to England with her husband. She received treatment at the Bethlem Royal Hospital. Her marriage with Denis broke down after their wartime ordeal, and she returned to Canada alone, eventually going to live with her aunt's family in Toronto. She persuaded a publisher to print a compilation of the women's recipes she had kept from Changi—almost 800 in total—and eventually raised $18,000 from sales of the resulting cookbook. In her sixties, Mulvany returned to school and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Laurentian University. == Death and legacy ==

Mulvany died in 1992, after retiring to Manitoulin Island. Several of the prisoners' quilts from Changchi can still be found in museums in Australia and the United Kingdom. == References ==