berylsidney

The writing seems to say "Miss Beryl Sidney"?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Moldavia

pennylrichardsca (now at ipernity) Hi pennyrichardsca, apologies for the delay in replying. Thank you for pointing us to the text. Initial research lead us to believe the image depicted Bery Sidney Haynes. However, this photograph is too early to be her, so it appears that it depicts the theatre actress Beryl Sidney. We are currently researching Sidney and hope to find out more information, especially about this particular event that took place on SS MOLDAVIA II. Thank you again from the curatorial staff at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

She was born on 27 Aug 1900 and married Ronald Angus Coles in Malaya on 4 November 1929 and they had 2 children. She and the children escaped from Singapore just prior to the arrival of the Japanese in 1942 and spent the war in Perth Australia. My father and she divorced and she died of cancer in 14 July 1957. Her full name was Beryl Mary Sidney Myer.

A nice atmospheric photo but the caption needs some review. This is not a photo of the Moldavia (b. 1922) but one of the five "Bay" cargo-passenger liners - the yellow funnel and the single promenade deck gave it away for me. The Australian Government had this quintet built in the UK in a vain attempt to break into the trade between the UK and Australia. All five ships were built in 1921-22 and the Commonwealth Government Line soon sold to the British Kylsant shipping Group! The most famous was the "Jervis Bay", sunk in a heroic action in WW2 (5 Nov 1940). The other four lasted until the mid 1950s. It also seems to be the ship is not anchored but berthed, perhaps at one of the Walsh Bay wharves, and there is no sign of it being in festive dress as the Regatta flagship.

FredV45 It's interesting you point that out FredV45 because a few other photographs in the same series had been mislabelled RMS MOLDAVIA as well. Thank you for pointing out the innacuracy. The photograph below was also mislabelled MOLDAVIA: