The Totem Pole
Fed on a diet of “western” films, “cowboys and Indians” was a popular game for boys like me, growing up in the Fifties. So, when stories emerged of family photographs that included Indians, it caused a bit of a stir. Speculation was rife as to what might have conceivably happened whilst Buffalo Bill Cody was touring with his famed “Wild West Show” at around the turn of the century. Certain relatives were remembered as having had slightly darker complexions than the rest of the family. My brother even made plans to erect a totem pole in his front garden. The truth though, was somewhat different, if just as interesting.
The Adventurer
My Great Uncle John Alfred Bond was an ordinary chap, born in 1878 into an ordinary working-class family. His father was a decorative painter by trade, and, in John’s formative years, the family moved around quite a bit, no doubt following the work. Perhaps that’s what gave John a lust for adventure. Though by 1890 the family had settled down on the outskirts of a big city and John, like many others, was holding down a labouring job in a local textile mill.
Maybe it was that lust for adventure, or maybe the then worldwide economic depression threatened his livelihood but, for whatever reason, John “joined up”. So, as the New Year – and the new century – opened, John found himself holding a rifle and defending the town of Ladysmith, under siege from the Boer Army. Times were tough, but things took a turn for the worst in the early morning of January 6th, when the Boers attacked Wagon Hill, right where John was positioned. The attack was successfully repelled, but John was left wounded.
Shipped back to England to recuperate, John left the army behind, but soon put on a different uniform, that of a Guard on the East Bengal Railway. Based in Calcutta (or Kolkata as it’s now known) in January 1907 he married Myrtle Gladys Farnworth, a local girl of Anglo-Indian descent and, in the following November, their daughter Gladys Doreen Edith Bond was born. Tragically, John didn’t live long enough to meet his daughter, as he died of malaria in October that year.
The Black Panther
Brought up in Calcutta by her mother and stepfather, by 1939 Gladys was working as a professional dancer, probably in the Calcutta nightclubs. Although evidently the name Gladys wasn’t anywhere near exotic enough for her profession, so she adopted the Stage Name “Kallecheta” (meaning “Black Panther”) and even claimed to be the niece of the Maharajah & Maharanee of Kucia.
Gladys (or “Cheetah” as she was by now known) soon formed a professional partnership with Billy Carroll, an American dancer born in New Jersey, but raised in Fresno California. By 1940 they had found their way to Shanghai, where they worked as professional dancers in the nightclubs and at the Cathay Hotel.
At that time Shanghai was under Japanese control, but the “foreign concessions” (the areas where most ex-pats lived & worked) were comparatively unaffected by this. However, it was clear that things were changing. So, like many ex-pats, in June 1940 Billy & Cheetah boarded a ship to Manila in the Philippines, and from there on to Los Angeles on the M.V. Dona Aurora.
The ship arrived in Los Angeles on July 15th and their plan was to return to Billy's Fresno home to get married, after which they had a contract to appear at the Biltmore Bowl in Los Angeles. However, Billy & Cheetah weren’t married and Cheetah’s flimsy excuse of “a one-year visit to her friend Mrs R Nelson in Fresno” (Billy’s sister) didn’t wash. So, when Gladys tried to enter the USA in the 'non-quota group', she was detained by the authorities and held for over than a month on Terminal Island, before being deported back to the Philippines.
Billy & Cheetah arrival back in Manila on the MV Dona Nati could have been better timed. Almost immediately, the Japanese Navy blocked the harbour and invaded the Philippines, and the couple found themselves interned in Santo Tomas camp (previously a part of Manila University) which was to be their home for over a year.
Then in 1942 the Japanese offered to return to Shanghai any internee who came from there and, as the Santo Tomas camp was grossly overcrowded, the Carrolls took up the offer. Although Shanghai was of course still under Japanese control, there they found themselves more-or-less free in Shanghai's International Settlement. But in 1943 all that changed and all Allied nationals in China were interned.
The Carrolls were sent to Chapei Camp, where things were tough; but Billy & Cheetah threw themselves into organising entertainment as a distraction from the everyday drudgery. It was here that Billy & Cheetah were at last married and where their daughter Sharon was born.
The Carrolls were eventually freed from internment in 1945 and celebrated their freedom with appearances at the “Argentina Nite Club” (claimed in the Shanghai Herald to be "Shanghai's only American-run Night-Club & Cocktail Lounge”). Although it had a chequered history and had once been the haunt of Nazi agents and Japanese officers.
Billy, Cheetah & Sharon at last made it back to California the following year on board the Troop Ship USS Hugh L Scott. Their arrival in Seattle on March 5th was captured by a Press Agency photographer.
The Photographs
Those old photographs never have shown up, though several people do remember seeing them. But at least we do now know the story behind them.
In the First World War, my Grandfather Samuel Wilson Weldon fought in the Dardanelles (Turkey) & then Mesopotamia (now Iraq). In 1919, after the war ended, his Regiment stopped over in India en route home and Samuel took leave to visit his Sister-in-Law Myrtle and niece Gladys in Calcutta. What I’d give to see those photos now.
With thanks to:
- The British Library (London): India Office Records
- Families in British India Society
- China Families website
- Desmond Power, author of “Little Foreign Devil”
- Greg Leck, author of “Captives of the Empire”
- Catherine Morison Rehart, author of “The Valley's Legends & Legacies (Volume 2)”
- Bernard Wasserstein, author of "Secret War in Shanghai"