Moore-Bennett, Helen Fletcher (née Latimer) (1891 – ca. 1960s); Moore-Bennett, Arthur John (1877-1950). Historically Significant Scrapbook with ca. 170 Original Gelatin Silver Photos and Real Photo Postcards, Various Manuscript and Printed Ephemera (Business or Calling Cards, Store and Suppliers’ Receipts, Hotel Invoices, Telegrams, Autograph Letters Signed, Original Envelopes, Telegrams and Newspaper Clippings), Taken and Collected during a Ten-Year-Long Cruise on Yacht “Medea” from Shanghai to Hong Kong, Singapore, Around the Malay Peninsula and thence to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Goa, Aden, Red Sea, Suez Canal, Cyprus, &c. Ca. 1931-1940 (the period of the voyage), but some photos and documents cover the period from 1913 to 1965.

Folio album (ca. 31x25 cm or ca. 12 ¼ x 9 ¾ in). 55 card stock leaves (most with loosely inserted tissue guards). With ca. 170 mounted and loosely inserted original gelatin silver photographs and real photo postcards; the size of the photos from ca. 23x29 cm (9 x 11 ¼ in) to ca. 2x3 cm (1 x 1 ¼ in); most images are from ca. 7x11,5 cm (2 ¾ x 4 ½ in) to ca. 6,5x9 cm (2 ½ x 3 ½ in). Over twenty photos with period ink or pencil captions on the mounts or versos; ca. eighteen real photo postcards with captions in negative or photographers’ stamps in the image. With twenty-five printed postcards, showing Goa and Singapore. With over 230 pieces of various printed and hand-written ephemera, mounted and loosely inserted. With five loosely inserted watercolours, from ca. 17,5x24 cm (6 ¾ x 9 ½ in) to ca. 21x31 cm (8 ¼ x 12 ¼ in). Period brown full cloth album; front board with a mounted paper label with the period manuscript note: “Mrs. M.B. scrapbook, recovered by J. [Goepals?], political officer, Aden, from Sultan [Ahwa?], Apl. 13d 1940 by […?] force. Aden levy, R.A.F.” Album rubbed on extremities, loosened on the hinges and with a partial split after leaf [5], several photos previously cut out from the leaves, several ephemera with minor tears or chipping; overall a very good album.

Historically significant, extensive collection of original photos, manuscripts and a wide range of printed ephemera, illustrating a ten-year-long voyage (1931-1940) of the Chinese-built yacht “Medea” around South-East Asia, the Malay Peninsula, Sri Lanka, India, the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea. The compiler was a former Canadian nurse, Helen Fletcher Latimer, who married Arthur Moore-Bennett, a British businessman active in China and Mongolia since the early 1900s and a managing director of the Anglo-Chinese Engineers’ Association in the 1910s.

“Medea” was built in Swatow (Shantou, Guangdong, China) and was registered with the Royal Shanghai Yacht Club. The voyage started in the summer of 1931, when “Medea” with the couple on board, sailed to Hong Kong, Macao and Canton (Guangzhou), where they stayed for half a year, experiencing three typhoons. For two years, the yacht was stationed in Singapore, cruising along the east and west coasts of the Malay Peninsula. In November 1933, they sailed to Bangka Island and returned along the east coast of Sumatra, went to Colombo (Sri Lanka) and then anchored off Goa. In the autumn of 1934, “Medea” continued its voyage to Aden, the Red Sea, Port Sudan, Hurghada, the Suez Canal and Cyprus.

Explaining the reasons for going on an independent sea voyage, Moore-Bennett wrote: “when most of my kind retire to spend the balance of their lives buying dog licenses, paying income-tax and otherwise aiding the country, I built “Medea” and started out anew to see other things, unhampered by a million laws, regulations, conventions and other chains invented by the West to curb all individuality” (Moore-Bennett, A.J. With the “Medea” in Malaya// The Straits Times. 8 October 1933, p. 9; see more). Apart from this, the Singapore online database “Newspaper SG” finds at least five Moore-Bennett’s articles published in the local newspapers during “Medea’s” cruise:

• Praise from a Visitor// The Straits Budget, 5 May 1932, p. 5;
• The Cruise of the “Medea”// The Straits Times, 5 November 1933, p. 8;
• Penang’s Beauty Hacked and Cut// Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle, 27 November 1933, p. 1;
• The Cruise of the “Medea:” West Coast Cruise Ends// The Straits Times, December 10, 1933, p. 8;
• “My yacht is my home”// The Straits Times, 19 January 1934, p. 3.
• Helen Moore-Bennett herself published a vivid account of the voyage to Hong Kong, Singapore, British Malaya and Sumatra in the “Quarterly Magazine, published <…> by and for the Alumnae Association of the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing in the City of New York (Life of a 45’ Ketch//Quarterly Magazine… Vol. 34, October 1939, No. 4, pp. 28-31; see more).

The album contains about 170 original snapshot photos, including several views of “Medea,” taken from different angles (during construction in Swatow and at sea, anchored in Singapore, beached on the coast of the Red Sea), photos of Hong Kong harbour and Chinese houses, Macao streets, Langkawi Island (Malaysia) and numerous portraits of the couple on board the yacht and with international friends. A large, loosely inserted group portrait shows Abu Bakar, the Sultan of Pahang (1904-1974; reign – 1932-1974), surrounded by British and Malay officials, planters and their families, with the names of most of them thoroughly identified on verso. In 1895-1942, Pahang was a part of the Federated Malay States (a British protectorate). An ink note on verso reads: “With much love to Helen, in memory of many happy hours spent in Kuantan – Pahang, F.M.S., September 3rd 1933.”

The real photo postcards show Hong Kong, the Snake Temple in George Town, “Malay Fishermen,” “Pagoda, Aier Itam Temple, Penang,” Malacca (Church of St. Francis Xavier, St. John Hill, Malacca Fort, “The old gate”), Zahir Mosque (Kedah), “Kuala Triang, Pulau Langkawi,” Malay villages, rubber plantation, durian fruits, scenes of rubber production and Hindu religious ceremonies, a portrait of Abdul Hamid Halim (26th Sultan of Kedah), a rare view of a street on the Langkawi Island, &c.

Among the ephemera collected during “Medea’s” stay in Singapore and the Malay Peninsula are original receipts (from “Motion, Smith & Son Ltd., Marine Opticians, Chronometer Makers & Compass Adjusters;” “The Singapore Slipway & Engineering Col. Ltd;” “Thong Whatt & Co., Cold Fresh Food Suppliers;” “Wah Cheong Co., 30, Coleman Street;” Sogomana Rubber Estate); business cards (of “Boon Seng & Co., Ship Chandlers, Sail Makers & Commission Agents;” “The Singapore Slipway & Engr. Co., Ltd.”); a cheque from the Singapore branch of “Fraser & Neave Ltd.”; a paper slip with the printed letterhead of the “Government of Kedah;” over a dozen calling cards (of “Captain W. Smith, Port Swettenham, F.M.S.,” “F.G. Ayris, Kuala Lipis,” “Mr. J. Hastings-Dasent, F.M.S.P., P.D.,” “Mr. Harold E. Roberton,” “H.M. Butterfield, Alor Star, Kedah,” “With Mr. & Mrs. Wilfred L. Davison’s compliments, Alor Star, Kedar, Malaysia,” “Mrs. Harold E. Robertson, Ayer Tawah Estate, Sitiawan, F.M.S.”), an invitation to an “evening entertainment and supper” in Port Dickson (modern-day Malaysia); &c. The album also contains an official letter from the Royal Singapore Yacht Club; two private letters with the printed monogram of “British Residency, Pahang” (written in Kuala Lipis); a letter from “Mayor Hayman” to Mrs. Moore-Bennett (the address of the sender is “Officers’ Mess, Changi”); a letter to Mr. Moore-Bennett addressed to “Yacht Medea, Kuantan, Pahang;” a telegram sent from Singapore about a friend with “eleven years trading experience, Solomons, New Guinea, desire accompany you,” &c.

The other ephemera include business or calling cards of Chinese, Sri Lankan, and Indian manufacturers, electrical engineers, government officials (consuls, vice consuls), journalists, jewellers, &c. There are also various official and private letters and telegrams (from Shanghai Yacht Club, General Commander of Police Corps in Nova-Goa, manager of the “Anglo-Egyptian Oil Co. Ltd.” in Hurghada, the customs in Limassol, &c.); receipts from grocery and general stores, banks, coffee and tea companies, boat part suppliers (from Swatow, Hong Kong, Canton, Colombo, Nova-Goa, Bombay, Steamer Point (Aden), “The Shell Company of the Sudan Ltd.,” Hurghada, Port Tewfik, &c.); a ticket to “Macao Greyhound racing club;” a typewritten program of “Port Sudan Athletic Sports Meeting” (March 16, 1935); a printed prospect of a cinema in Port Sudan (in Greek, Arabic and English), &c. Several pieces of ephemera from 1935 to 1940 indicate that the couple stayed in Cyprus; later materials document their travels to British East Africa (Kenya) and Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo).

The collection also includes the original certificate of a registered nurse, given to “Miss Helen H. Latimer” by the Graduate Nurses’ Association of British Columbia in April 1921; an official form with the printed letterhead of Vancouver General Hospital; a clipping from a Toronto newspaper with Helen Latimer’s photo and a note about her Ontario Red Cross scholarship; a group portrait of young nurses (likely, featuring Helen Latimer) posing in front of a London hospital; several business cards of Arthur Moore-Bennet, presenting him as engaged in “Decorative Chinese Arts” or “Yacht Medea, R.S.Y.C. (cruising), Hong Kong Club, Hong Kong”; various family portraits; a view of “the house M.B. and I lived in with Mr. Robertson in south […?] during World War II;” envelopes from the letters to “Mrs. Moore-Bennett,” addressed to Cyprus and England in 1949 and 1955, marriage certificate of Arthur Moore-Bennet’s parents (1876); invitation to the memorial service for Winston Churchill in the Episcopal Church of Sarasota in January 1965, &c.

Overall a captivating, content-rich original source on the history of a ten-year-long cruise of a Canadian woman around Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Helen Fletcher Latimer was born in Lanark, Ontario, in 1891. In 1913, she graduated from the American Red Cross School of Nursing at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York. During WW1, she served as a nurse with the American Red Cross and Canadian Expeditionary Force in Serbia, Paris and London. The Canadian Census for 1921 registers her as living with her mother in Vancouver, B.C. (an apartment building on West 10th Ave). In ca. 1930, Helen Latimer married Arthur Moore-Bennet, a British businessman, who spent “thirty years in Mongolia, Manchuria, China, Indo-China and the Shan States” (Moore-Bennett, A.J. With the “Medea” in Malaya// The Strait Times. 8 October 1933, p. 9; see more).

In 1917, he was titled “managing director of the Anglo-Chinese Engineers’ Association” (Hull Daily Mail, 22 May 1917, p. 6). In 1914-1915, Moore-Bennet published several articles about the Chinese economy in British newspapers (Moore-Bennett, A.J. Wasted Resources of China// The Manchester Guardian. 16 January 1914, p. 6; Moore-Bennett, A.J. Closing Door of China// Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Adviser/ 20 March 1915, p. 7).