On the 15th February 1942 as Singapore was falling to the Japanese this Australian flag, which flew at the offices of the Singapore Harbour Board (SHB), was taken down during the evacuation by Jack Finlay Stein, an Australian employed by SHB. Before the surrender Stein and 82 other Board members left the port in a vehicular ferry (which exact vessel he was on is being researched) and made their escape south to Jupes then on foot to Batavia. Fortuitously a British B.I. boat the “Modasa” put into Batavia for repairs and collected the escapees and transported them to Bombay via Colombo for on forwarding and eventual repatriation. The original flag is now framed and hangs proudly at one of Jack Stein’s decendent’s homes in Western Australia.
