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Gordon
Stanley Reis was born on 25 April 1889 at 49 Mayfield Road, Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of
Alphonse Louis and Marian (Dugan) Reis. He married
Winifred Simpson Cran on 16 December 1921 in Rangoon, Burma.
Gordon died as a civilian prisoner of war on 2 November 1944 at Muntok on
Bangka Island off Sumatra, Indonesia. (His prison of war diary can be read HERE
(<-- PDF over
70 pages).
Winifred
Cran was born on 3 September 1898 in Blackburn, Lancaster and died on 7 July 1983 in
Durban, Natal, South Africa. Gordon and Winifred Reis belong to Reis Generation Three; their children belong to Reis Generation Four and are:
Additional Data: Gordon Reis studied Agriculture at Edinburgh University after attending the Royal High School. He spent one year at Munich (possibly Heidelberg) University studying forestry and he then joined, before World War One, Harrison Crossfields in Sumatra where he ran one of their estates. He remained there throughout World War One. Gordon Reis had six siblings: Harold, Emile, Albert Victor, Cyril Herbert, Norah Evelyn, and Louis Norman.
From about 1921 to 1939 Gordon and Winifred lived most of the time on a rubber estate called Batu Kawan on an island of the same name, just off Penang. The plantation was owned by a French company known as SOCFIN, or 'Societe Financiere des Caoutchoucs'. Gordon also co-owned, with Thomas Menzies, an estate called Sungei Wei in Selangor state outside Kuala Lumpur on the Malay peninsular.
In 1939 Gordon Reis fell gravely ill suffering from a gangrenous appendix
leading to septicemia followed by pneumonia, a coronary thrombosis and a
pulmonary embolism. He spent months in Penang General Hospital after which
he took six months leave and in 1940 traveled to New Zealand and Australia
with his wife and daughter. In Sydney, they left their daughter behind where
she boarded in a hostel for single young ladies and began to train as a
beautician; her parents having insisted that it was now time for her to
begin a career for herself. They returned to Singapore where
Gordon Reis joined Cable and Wireless. However the Japanese were
already beginning their march south through Burma. Realizing war was
imminent Allwynne returned to Singapore. Right is Gordon Reis in
Sumatra in 1918. It is signed: Your Affectionate son 'Paddy'.
On the back of
this photo of Gordon Reis and his wife Winifred is written "December 26th, 5.15 PM. Tea! all the dogs glad to see us
back. They evidently didn't realise their photos were being taken. Sorry."
I guess this picture was taken in the late 1930's.
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