Editing Gerald Gardner (section)

===Malaya and World War I: 1911–1926===
Arriving in Singapore, he initially planned to return to Ceylon, but was offered a job working as an assistant on a rubber plantation in [[Perak]], northern Malaya, and decided to take it, working for the [[Borneo Company Limited|Borneo Company]].{{Sfnm|Bracelin|1960|1pp=56, 60–61|Heselton|2012a|2p=81}} Arriving in the area, he decided to supplement this income by purchasing his own estate, Bukit Katho, on which he could grow rubber; initially sized at 450 acres, Gardner purchased various pieces of adjacent land until it covered 600 acres.{{Sfn|Heselton|2012a|p=85}}

Here, Gardner made friends with an American man known as Cornwall, who had converted to [[Islam]] and married a local Malay woman.{{Sfnm|Bracelin|1960|1pp=57–60|Heselton|2012a|2pp=82–83}} Through Cornwall, Gardner was introduced to many locals, whom he soon befriended, including members of the [[Senoi]] and [[Ethnic Malays|Malay]] peoples. Cornwall invited Gardner to make the ''[[Shahada]]'', the Muslim confession of faith, which he did; it allowed him to gain the trust of locals, although he would never become a practising Muslim. Cornwall was however an unorthodox Muslim, and his interest in local peoples included their magical and spiritual beliefs, to which he also introduced Gardner, who took a particular interest in the ''[[kris]]'', a ritual knife with magical uses.{{Sfn|Heselton|2012a|pp=83–84, 91–95}}

In 1915, Gardner again joined a local volunteer militia, the Malay States Volunteer Rifles. Although between 1914 and 1918 [[World War I]] was raging in Europe, its effects were little felt in Malaya, apart from the [[1915 Singapore Mutiny]].{{Sfnm|Bracelin|1960|1pp=63–64|Heselton|2012a|2pp=85–86}} Gardner was keen to do more towards the war effort and in 1916 once again returned to Britain. He attempted to join the [[Royal Navy]] but was turned down due to ill health.{{Sfnm|Bracelin|1960|1p=123|Heselton|2012a|2pp=86–87}} Unable to fight on the front lines, he began working as an orderly in the [[Voluntary Aid Detachment]] (VAD) in the First Western General Hospital, [[Fazakerley]], located on the outskirts of Liverpool.

He was working in the VAD when casualties came back from the [[Battle of the Somme]] and he was engaged in looking after patients and assisting in changing wound dressings. He soon had to give this up when his malaria returned, and so decided to return to Malaya in October 1916 because of the warmer climate.{{Sfnm|Bracelin|1960|1pp=123–124|Heselton|2012a|2pp=87–89}}

He continued to manage the rubber plantation but after the end of the war, commodity prices dropped and by 1921 it was difficult to make a profit.{{Sfn|Heselton|2012a|p=95}} He returned again to Britain, in what later biographer Philip Heselton speculated might have been an unsuccessful attempt to ask his father for money.{{Sfn|Heselton|2012a|pp=95–96}} Returning to Malaya, Gardner found that the Borneo Company had sacked him, and he was forced to find work with the Public Works Department.{{Sfnm|Bracelin|1960|1pp=64–65|Heselton|2012a|2p=96}} In September 1923 he successfully applied to the Office of Customs to become a government-inspector of rubber plantations, a job that involved a great amount of travelling around the country, something he enjoyed.{{Sfnm|Bracelin|1960|1pp=65–66|Heselton|2012a|2pp=96–98}}

After a brief but serious illness, the [[Johore]] government reassigned Gardner to an office in the Lands Office while he recovered, eventually being promoted to Principal Officer of Customs. In this capacity, he was made an Inspector of Rubber Shops, overseeing the regulation and sale of rubber in the country. In 1926 he was placed in charge of monitoring shops selling [[opium]], noting regular irregularities and a thriving illegal trade in the controlled substance; believing opium to be essentially harmless, there is evidence indicating that Gardner probably took many bribes in this position, earning himself a small fortune.{{Sfnm|Bracelin|1960|1pp=66–74|Heselton|2012a|2pp=99–102}}