Plea on social media ended decades-long search for nanny

Growing up in Wales, Ms Sara McGaughey longed to find the nanny her family had left behind in Singapore when they returned home around 1963.

- Ang Qing

“My first experience back in the United Kingdom was being separated from my parents and taken to an isolation hospital for three days. It was cold and wet, and I missed my amah... It was quite a traumatic experience,” said Ms McGaughey, who was just a toddler when they left.

Now in her 50s, the yoga instructor spent decades since she was 18 combing through military records for Ms Tan Siew Khim, who had a recommendation from the Royal Navy, trawling the Internet and contacting the media to find any trace of her nanny. Each time, she came up empty.

In a Zoom interview with The Straits Times earlier this year, Ms McGaughey said: My mother told me that Ah Khim was so very upset when we left that she threw herself on the floor, and even though I can’t remember that, it was one thing that I couldn’t come to terms with. Before we left, she sewed me a pair of silk pyjamas, which I still have.