Sheilah Mary MACKINLAY / SEARLE (née JEFFRIES) [c.1914-2001] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Sheilah Mary MACKINLAY / SEARLE (née JEFFRIES) [c.1914-2001]

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Submitted by Admin on Wed, 2014-06-25 12:58
Names
Given: 
Sheilah Mary
Family: 
Mackinlay / Searle
Maiden: 
Jeffries
Sex: 
Female
Status: 
Deceased
Birth
Date: 
c.1914-01-01 (Year, Month, Day are approximate)
Death
Date: 
2001-07-13

Details from John Black's list, which lists her as "Housewife" in 1941.

Tags: 
WW2: Interned at Stanley Camp
VAD
Connections: 
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Submitted by Admin on Tue, 2019-01-15 15:49.

Thanks to Diana Fortescue for this additional information about Sheilah, from Sheilah's son with Lance Searle, Jonathan:

Her maiden name was actually Jeffries. She married William Andrew Mackinlay, a solicitor with Messrs Deacons in HK at St Andrews Church in HK. He died in action (2nd Lieutenant with the Middlesex Regiment having been actively involved with the Machine Gun Troop of HK Volunteer Defence Corps) on 24.12.41, the day before the surrender.

She died in Addenbrokes Hospital, Cambridge on 13.07.2001. Her father, Charles William Jeffries, Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, died from a heart attack in June 1941. 

Submitted by Admin on Tue, 2019-01-15 16:02.

Unusually, her first wedding was reported in the newspaper before the event. Here's the report on page 7 of the Hong Kong Daily Press, 1936-11-13:

FORTHCOMING WEDDING

Popular Local Pair To Marry

MACKINLAY—JEFFRIES

A wedding of some considerable interest to the legal fraternity and local amateur dramatic circles will shortly take place between Mr. William Andrew Mackinlay, popular solicitor of the firm of Messrs. Deacons, and Miss Sheila Mary Jeffries, Assistant Mistress in the Education Department.

Mr. Mackinlay, who lives at 15-19, Observatory Road, Kowloon, is a well-known player of the Hong Kong Amateur Dramatic Club, and was admitted in the Supreme Court to practise as a solicitor on October 3, 1933.

Mr. Mackinlay was the Hon. Secretary of the gymkhana held last month by the Machine Gun Troop of the HK. Volunteer Defence Corps, and much of the success of the meeting was due in no small measure to the work he put in.

Mr. Mackinlay appeared in the A.D.C. productions of "Payment Deferred," Noel Coward's “The Young Idea" and “Fresh Fields."

Miss Jeffries, who is the daughter of Mr. C. W. Jeffries, F.R.A.S. Director of the Royal Obervatory, and Mrs. Jeffries, is also a leading light in the Hong Kong A.D.C. and made a most successful appearance in “Fresh Fields."