Moshe Elias was born in Singapore in 1934. He remembers growing up in a close-knit but integrated Singapore Jewish community. He describes how his ancestors came to Singapore from Iraq via India, and how as a child he was evacuated with surviving family back to India in 1941 as the Japanese bombing of Singapore began. On returning to Singapore, Moshe completed his education, trained as an engineer and architect, and became Singapore's principal naval architect. Moshe followed his wife and children from Singapore to England in 1977.