Day Joyce Sheet

The Day Joyce Sheet is an artefact that emerged from the prison camps of the Second World War. Created secretly in Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong, the double bed sheet was embroidered and appliquéd with 1100 names, signs and figures and includes two years of camp diaries in code. It was successfully hidden during numerous searches of the camp and brought back to England at the end of the war. The needle Mrs. Joyce was using is still lodged in the sheet at the place where she broke off when the camp was liberated in 1945. In 1975 it was donated to the Imperial War Museum, London. In May 2009 the sheet was placed on public display for the first time, as part of a temporary exhibition at Imperial War Museum North entitled Captured: The Extraordinary Life of Prisoners of War. While the sheet's size and fragility prevent it from being put on permanent display, it can be seen in the Exhibits and Firearms Department by prior appointment.

Most of the available information about the Day Joyce Sheet come from Day Joyce's own memoirs and the works of historian Bernice Archer who researched the history of civilian internment during the Pacific War.