Maude Elizabeth Basto was born in about 1896 in Hong Kong. In 1937 she married Luiz Eduardo Fernandes Castro Basto.
She was arrested alongside her husband and other Macanese during the Kempeitai purge of the Club Lusitano and the Portuguese Residents Association during October-November 1942. She was released on medical grounds and re-arrested on January 30th, 1943. Thereafter she was held in Stanley Prison awaiting trial, the only woman amongst about 40 men.
One of these men, the Singhalese journalist Neil Esmond Hunter, later paid tribute to her as ‘the most majestically brave woman I shall ever know’. Another, Ho Wing, referred to her as “the Angel” because although suffering herself she always tried to bring consolation to others.
After the mass trial of August 29th, 1944 – where all the accused were found ‘guilty’ in accordance with Japanese practice – she was separated from the others and transferred to the woman’s section where she served her sentence until being released on or around August 23rd, 1945.
The Dark World's Fire: Hong Kong in World War Two 