Ethel Rogers Mulvany

Ethel Rogers Mulvany (December 22, 1904 – 1992) was a Canadian social worker and teacher. In the early 1930s, she travelled across Asia to complete an educational survey of different countries, and met her future husband during the trip. They married and moved to India. In 1935, Mulvany returned to Canada for the Canadian National Exhibition as director of an extensive Indian arts and culture exhibit, working on behalf of the government of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. She received a King's silver jubilee medal for her work at the Exhibition.

In 1940, she moved to Singapore with her husband. While confined to Changi Prison from 1942 to 1945 as a prisoner of war during the Second World War, Mulvany organized imaginary "feasts" with her fellow prisoners to stave off hunger and collected nearly 800 recipes, which she later compiled into a recipe book and sold to raise approximately $18,000 for former prisoners of war.

Early life Ethel Rogers was born on December 22, 1904 on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. After her birth mother died, she was adopted by Henry and Isabella Rogers. As a teenager, she began working as a teacher, and moved to Toronto and Montreal for additional education.

Work and marriage In Toronto, Rogers became the director of a society for arts and literature, and in 1933 she set off on a tour of Asia in order to complete an educational survey for her society, She met a British army doctor named Denis Mulvany during her travels, and the couple were married in Lucknow, India, and also arranged to ship several Indian animals—such as tiger cubs—to Canada for public viewing, although within three months most of the animals had died due to illness, heat or other causes. Mulvany received a King's silver jubilee medal for her work at the Exhibition.

Mulvany moved to Singapore with Denis in 1940, and she began volunteering with the Australian Red Cross. She persuaded a publisher to print a compilation of the women's recipes she had kept from Changi—almost 800 in total—and eventually raised $18,000 from sales of the resulting cookbook.

In her sixties, Mulvany returned to school and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Laurentian University.

Several of the prisoners' quilts from Changchi can still be found in museums in Australia and the United Kingdom.