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travelled to England, volunteered for the British Army, and was accepted as a Private. In London, he lectured to
the Royal Anthropological Society of Great Britain and Ireland (this organisation was to contact Kyle-Little and
commission a book about his experiences). He was called up to the London War Office where he was asked to
proceed to Malaya to serve as a Resettlement Officer in the British Colonial Service. Kyle-Little arrived in Malaya
in 1951 and was made Chief Resettlement Officer. Within a year, he was seconded to the British Army and within
18 months was promoted from Captain to Lieutenant Colonel. He stayed with the Malayan Security Forces in
the Home Guard in the State of Negri Sembilan, Malaya for seven or eight years. In September 1952, he won the
Distinguished Conduct Medal, Malaya. Kyle-Little was granted unrestricted permission from Queen Elizabeth
II to wear the Negri Sembilan Distinguished Conduct medal which was conferred upon him by His Highness
the Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan for bravery. At night, in a flood at New Village, Port Dickson,
Kyle-Little swam the river and secured the access bridge and rescued a woman and child who had been swept
away in the flooded river.
While in service in Malaya he led his troops on numerous deep jungle patrols, harassing the communist forces
on their own ground, finding their mountaintop training camps and attacking strategically. These attacks always
involved close encounter combat during the final stages and the fighting was ruthless and deadly. Arnhem Land
had been a great training ground for Kyle-Little and his close associations with Oondabund and other Aboriginal
assistants had taught him the crafts of bushmanship. Kyle-Little commented, ‘I have always been proud of the
multi-racial Malayan Security Force I commanded and what we achieved. Malaya today is a proud free and
independent nation, that defeated communism very successfully’.
It was during this time that Kyle-Little wrote his account of his time in Arnhem Land, Whispering Wind and
in 1957, the book was published. The book is a mixture of his reports as a patrol officer and the story of his
relationship with the Arnhem Land Aborigines. Kyle-Little acknowledges the assistance of his friend, journalist
Dennis Warner, who also advised him to remove certain passages critical to aspects of Arnhem Land administration
at the time. It is a vivid and exciting read and its recent re-issue is testimony to its success.
Kyle-Little met his wife, Marianne Lila Waugh, in Malaya soon after the book came out. Whispering Wind was
a success with offers of follow-up film and television inquiries including Columbia Broadcasting System television
and Life magazine. For a variety of reasons, but mainly his marriage in the same year as his book was published,
Kyle-Little did not take up any of these offers. Kyle-Little worked for an American company, Wyeth International,
for a time as their Regional Manager, South-East Asia. He then joined a British company, Singapore Cold Storages,
as the National Marketing Manager. Kyle-Little served as a military observer in French occupied Vietnam under
the British and survived the battle of Nom Bien Phu. Three of his sons were born in South-East Asia, Simon,
Clinton and Scott, but the fourth, Damian, was born in Australia as Kyle-Little feared escalation of the Vietnam
conflict and moved out of the region.
Kyle-Little did not return to Arnhem Land until 1981 when he was flown back to open the community museum
there. At this time he renewed his friendship with his two old trackers and the others members of that community.
In the 1980s, following the renewal of old ties, one of Kyle-Little’s sons abandoned a Bachelor of Education degree
at James Cook University to work at Maningrida Arts and Crafts after the community requested Kyle-Little saying,
‘we’ve got to have a son of yours’. This son, Simon Kyle-Little, continued to live in the Northern Territory, where
he operated a tourist venture in eastern Arnhem Land. Kyle-Little maintained his contact with the Maningrida
community which he immortalised in Whispering Wind and continued to visit the Territory regularly although his
permanent home was in Brisbane. In the mid 1990s Syd Kyle-Little completed a book about his experiences in
Malaya tentatively titled, ‘The War That Was Called An Emergency’.
Australian Archives, Northern Territory, CRS A3 50/81, F1 46/677, 49/393; J Doolan, interview with the author, 18 January 1985; S Kyle-Little,
interview with the author, 9 June 1995; S Kyle-Little, Whispering Wind, 1957; S Kyle-Little, letter to the author, 20 June 1995; J Long,
The Go-Betweens, 1992; Northern Territory Archives NTRS 226 TS260; information from Sergeant G Simpson, History Officer, Northern
Territory Police.
MICKEY DEWAR, Vol 3.