Violet Sleigh

Sleigh returned to Malaysia twice. She described her first journey home in the 1970s as a "sentimental journey" home. She wanted to find her half-brother, Harry, whom she had lost contact with, and to also find her father's grave. Her father had passed away in the 1960s in Malaysia. Her second trip to Malaysia in 2015 was a gift from her daughters on the occasion of her 80th birthday.

On 17 August 1957, Sleigh married an Australian advertising executive, Cecil Fay Bombell and then she had to move to Australia, where she had four daughters. Her husband was a half-Australian and a half-Italian.

Sleigh became Miss Malaya when she won the Miss Max Factor Malaya title in the year 1953, beating over 47 contestants across Malaya and Singapore. A scout for the beauty pageant approached Sleigh at Robinson's Department Store in Singapore where she worked as a dressmaker and occasional model. Sleigh also competed in the Miss Malaya 1954 pageant held at the Capitol Theatre, Singapore and ended up being the 1st Runner-up while the Miss Singapore herself, Rugayah binti Ibrahim won the third place. The winner, Marjorie Wee of Malaya had the rights to represent Singapore in Miss Universe 1954.

The Japanese surrender was officially announced on 15 August 1945, but it was another two weeks before the internees saw Allied planes. Sleigh witnessed the drop of six British soldiers by parachute into the camp on 30 August 2015.

Sleigh's older sisters, Stella, Iris and Grace were killed in 1942 as they fled the imminent Japanese invasion. Fearing for the safety of his daughters, Harry Sleigh bought four tickets to put his daughters on the evacuation ship, 'S.S. Kuala', that was bound to Australia. The three girls are presumed to have died during the sinking of the ship after it was hit by Japanese bombers off Pom Pom Island. Sleigh was also to board the 'S.S. Kuala' with her older sisters but "clung to her father in tears and terror and refused to leave". A jockey's girlfriend who was with them, Jessie Lee, took Sleigh's place after she offered to care for the girls. Henry Sleigh thought his three daughters were safe in Australia and did not learn of the sinking of the 'S.S. Kuala' until after the war. Sleigh recalled during a 2016 radio interview that her parents walked to the Raffles Hotel to see the list of the survivors. When they did not see the names of their daughters, her parents sat and cried.

The Sleigh family were considered by the Japanese to be enemy civilians because of their Australian nationality. Sleigh was interned at the infamous Changi Civilian internment Camp along with her father, older half-brother and step-mother. Sleigh's younger half-brother, Harry, was born at the camp on 26 July 1942. The women and children were segregated from the men, and were eventually allowed to meet occasionally. Drawings of "Bluey" and "Pop" Sleigh by fellow internee, William Haxworth. The sketches show how they were reduced to skin and bones as a result of their internment.

Violet Maria Bombell (née Sleigh) (born 1935), became Miss Malaya when she was crowned "Miss Max Factor of Malaya" in 1953. She also won the second place in the Miss Malaya 1954 pageant in Singapore.

Violet Maria Sleigh was born in Singapore in 1935 to a Malay mother, Hannah Elias, and an Australian father, Henry Montague Holland Sleigh. Henry Sleigh was a well-known horse trainer in Malaya, before and after the Second World War. He and Hannah Elias had five daughters: Stella (b. 13 July 1930), Iris (b. 10 October 1931), Grace (b. 25 May 1933), Violet and Joyce (b. 1934).

Sleigh has an older half-sister and a half-brother, 'Bluey' Arthur William Sleigh (b. 1902), from her father's first marriage to Ada McCabe. She also has a younger half brother, Harry Sleigh, from her father's third marriage.