No Substitute for Kindness
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No Substitute for Kindness THE STORY OF MAY AND STANLEY SMITH No Substitute for Kindness THE STORY OF MAY AND STANLEY SMITH © 2017 The May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust. All rights reserved. Contents ISBN 978-0-9965590-1-0 Written and produced by Personal History Productions LLC Foreword vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi Helping companies, organizations, and individuals record their histories ONE Stanley Smith’s Beginnings 1 NINE Trading in Postwar Hong Kong 109 as a legacy for families, employees, customers, beneficiaries, and the public. TWO School Days 11 T EN From Merchants to Miners 123 707.539.5559 THREE The Wandering Years 27 ELEVEN A New Approach to Human Resources 139 www.personalhistoryproductions.com FOUR Sydney to Singapore 39 TWELVE A Pair of Shrewd and Well-Connected Entrepreneurs 145 FI VE Secret Agent in Singapore 49 THIRTEEN Home in Singapore 151 SIX Decamping to Chungking 57 FOURTEEN Cold War to Cold Feet: Leaving Singapore 161 SEVEN A Privileged Girl in Troubled Times 75 FIFTEEN The End of a Good Run 173 EIGHT The Final War Years 93 SIXTEEN Life Without Stanley 189 Epilogue 199 Endnotes 203 Selected Bibliography 223 Image Credits 229 Index 231 v Foreword elling the story of Stanley and May Smith is like two men who became his friends late in life. The first putting together an old jigsaw puzzle, one whose is a batch of handwritten letters sent over the course of Tpieces have been tossed high in the sky and scat- his last 11 years to the headmaster of the private gram- tered far and wide around the globe, with some key bits mar school he attended in Australia. The second is a lost forever along the way. The image that emerges is portion of the correspondence between Stanley and inevitably incomplete. Sir George Taylor, then director of the Royal Botanic Stanley and May Smith were an extremely private Gardens, Kew. couple who preferred staying out of the spotlight and May survived Stanley by 38 years, living to age 83. actively discouraged public recognition and attention. But other than three letters that she wrote to Taylor They also didn’t believe in keeping letters or preserving after Stanley’s death, nothing she might have ever writ- documents and files. In fact, Stanley was known for hav- ten has been found. ing his business and personal papers and correspon- May and Stanley had no children together, and dence periodically tossed into bonfires. As a result, not Stanley’s daughter from his first marriage died in 1991. much about their lives that might have been recorded Stanley’s only grandchild was born after he passed in writing remains to this day. away. Almost everyone who knew the couple is now also When Stanley Smith died, suddenly and unexpect- deceased. As a result, this portrait of Stanley and May edly at age 61, he left no written account of his life. In Smith has been pieced together bit by bit, drawn from searching for clues about his life, we found several tele- interviews and correspondence with the few surviving grams and memorandums that Stanley wrote during people who knew them, the letters they wrote that have World War Two as well as two sets of letters he sent to been saved, archival documents, newspaper articles, vii books, and other written accounts in which the Smiths lished accounts and stories recalled by interviewees. (mainly Stanley) are mentioned. When recounting stories that are possibly fabrications Researching May Smith’s life presented an especially of someone’s fertile mind, we advise the reader of their difficult challenge. She was born in China in 1922, uncertain status. a time of great political and societal upheaval, and The research for this book took place on three records from that era are usually inaccessible or nonex- different continents with the assistance of a group of istent. In her day-to-day life, May didn’t talk much about dedicated and skillful researchers and historians (see Acknowledgments her past. Thus little about her could be ascertained. Acknowledgments). The various members of the Fortunately, we were able to find out which schools she research team found clues about the Smiths in archi- attended, and that helped lead us to one schoolmate val documents and scholarly articles and books, as well who knew and remembered her and to documents that as in a few memoirs, written in past decades (listed in esearching and writing No Substitute for Kindness: members his step-grandmother, May. Alex also pro- were helpful in shedding some light on her life. Selected Bibliography). Many of these sources offer The Story of May and Stanley Smith was truly a col- vided us with a collection of letters and other rele- Stanley Smith was a raconteur, and he enjoyed just a glimpse of May or Stanley Smith, one or two small R laborative effort. Four individuals graciously vant documents that were passed along to him by his entertaining people with tales of his past; but he was pieces of the puzzle. Some do not mention them at all shared their memories of May and/or Stanley Smith, late mother, Barbara. Ronald Gibbs, who was hired guarded about revealing too much about himself, a ten- but simply explain the cultures they belonged to and and a resourceful team of eight historians and research- as a bookkeeper and accountant by Stanley Smith in dency that most likely became deeply engrained while the times in which they lived. ers devoted many hours to searching public records 1961 and who served as co-executor of Stanley’s estate serving as a secret agent for the British in Singapore We hope the result of our efforts will shed some and digital databases, trawling through World War Two and currently serves as a trustee of the Stanley Smith during World War Two. Beyond that, Stanley apparently light on the lives and times of May and Stanley Smith, archives, deciphering photocopies of handwritten let- Horticultural Trust, was interviewed twice—once in enjoyed telling stories that he created out of whole a couple whose generosity continues to reach far and ters, and scanning history books for mentions of the person and another time over the phone—about his cloth in jest to amuse his audience. And because he touch many. publicity-shy couple and for insights into the times in memories of both Stanley and May. He is the only per- cultivated a larger-than-life, somewhat mysterious rep- which they lived. We also received helpful information son we could find who knew both Stanley and May. utation among his colleagues, stories that have been Ruth M. Collins, Administrator and Trustee from Stanley Smith’s alma mater, the Anglican Church Ruth Collins, administrator and a trustee of the May and passed along about Stanley often cannot be substanti- Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust Grammar School (Churchie) of Brisbane, and May Stanley Smith Charitable Trust and the Stanley Smith ated. We have tried when possible to corroborate pub- May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust Smith’s alma mater, the University of St. Andrews in Horticultural Trust and the granddaughter of the Scotland. Smiths’ chief financial adviser, John Collins, Sr., shared We were fortunate to be able to interview in per- her memories of May. She also transcribed doz- son three individuals who actually knew May and/or ens of letters handwritten by Stanley Smith to the Stanley. Alex de Brye, the grandson of Stanley Smith, headmaster of his alma mater, Churchie. John Bam- was born after his grandfather died, but he vividly re- forth, who along with his late wife, Enid, cared viii Foreword ix for May in her later years, provided his memories his findings. University of Bristol graduate student of May in four lengthy handwritten letters. Meredith Inman also researched Smith’s time with the To learn more about the Smiths’ backgrounds, MOI in China. we recruited a group of talented and resourceful his- Cathy Shue, of Santa Rosa, California, tapped into torians who searched archives all over the world to her contacts in China to track down against all odds unearth stories about the couple. Yvonne Perkins, a his- May (Wong) Smith’s school records. Jin Feng, profes- torian based in Sydney, Australia, and writer of the blog sor of Chinese at Grinnell College and the author of Introduction Stumbling Through the Past, focused on Stanley Smith’s The Making of a Family Saga: Ginling College, focused on childhood and early years in Brisbane up through his May’s family background and experiences as a student years in Australia’s Outback. Australian historian and in the prewar era. Feng’s research was conducted while former journalist Jacqui Murray, author of Watching the on sabbatical in China during the summer of 2016. Sun Rise: Australian Reporting of Japan 1931 to the Fall of Nicholas J. White, a professor in the school of Hu- n early 1957, Harry Roberts, the bespectacled, book- boy—at a cattle station in the Australian Bush. In the Singapore, focused on Stanley’s time in the Outback, manities and Social Science at Liverpool John Moores ish headmaster of the Church of England Grammar intervening 34 years, Stanley hadn’t kept up much with his career with Gordon and Gotch, his recruitment as University in England and the author of Business, Gov- ISchool, in Brisbane, Australia, received some happy his fellow “Old Boys,” as Churchie’s alums are known, an agent for Britain’s Secret Operations Executive in ernment, and the End of Empire: Malaya, 1942–1957, fo- news: a donation of £20,000—roughly $450,000 in U.S.