Letter from Burma Epilogue

I decided to write this fictionalised story about the part of Burma where Gwenllian and Mark Day lived, upon receiving Gwenllian's diary from 1935. There are not many stories in the diary, but lots of names of people and places, so I did some research to find out more about some of the people, and much more about the part of the country where they were living and working.

Some of the information is based on stories and photographs from their daughter, Rosalind, and other pieces of family history.

I decided to present the information as a series of letters. These are invented letters, but I am assuming that Gwenllian had weekly written contact with many of the people who were listed on Saturday in her diary – so those are the ones I chose to have her write to. As a theme for telling about life in Tenasserim in 1935, I have used an imaginary school project that Rosalind asked for information about. I have no real letters from any of the people mentioned, at the time, so I apologize if I have made them write things that they might not have done in real life. There are lots of things that I don't know about Gwellian and Mark's period at Heinda mine, like what transport they used to get into Tavoy - which they visited fairly frquently during that year. Becaue they tended to go for short periods too I think they must have had a car – but the roads over those 35 miles from the camp would have been very basic and through mountains and rain forest. I don't think the railway was completed by that time. I considered that they might have travelled by boat – as one article I read implied that the tin was taken for export by river, but unless they had a motorboat, that mode of travel would have been very slow.

I don't know anything about Mark's hunting expertise but do know that Rosalind, his daughter, didn't seem to have any hunting trophies amongst her items in the house that originally belonged to her mother.

One problem I had was that all the names in Burma have changed within the last few years, and sometimes I was unable to find the old name for a town or river.

Anyway, there is far more that I don't know, and probably will never know, which would make this book more authentic, but I hope the impression I gave of their lives was not unrealistic.

This might seem an abrupt end – but the diary has large gaps in it during September and October and stops having anything but grocery needs from mid November. And from 21 December, it is completely empty – which is why I assumed they might well have had a long leave at that time.

Gwenllian and Mark Day stayed in Burma until 1941, when they returned to England where they had a house at Christian Malford, Chippenham, Wiltshire. Mark died of coronary thrombosis in March, 1953. A note about his death says he was a Consulting Mining Engineer and Company Director. After his death, Gwenllian moved to Monsanto, Cornwall and then to Ponsanooth, Cornwall, where she died in April 1992.

Rosalind married John Lyle, a missionary,  and spent many years in India with him. Later they were divorced and Rosalind taught school in various places. When she retired, she went to Ponsanooth to take care of Gwenllian. She sold her house and moved to a nursing home in Truro in 2012 where she still is today. My daughter visited her last summer, but she didn't remember her, or any of our family.