Description
Object description
Letter (6pp ms) written in November 1941 by Harry Lott, a civilian employee at the Naval Dockyard in Hong Kong, to his son in Portsmouth (England), discussing his attempts to obtain his release back to the UK, the reluctance of his wife to accompany him and the issues involved in leaving her and their daughter behind in the colony, and preparations for a potential outbreak of hostilities with Japan (Lott was a volunteer in the Hong Kong Dockyard Defence Corps at the time), commenting also on the general war situation; 23 letters and postcards dated between June 1942 – October 1945, many written to him in Japanese captivity by his wife who had managed to escape with their daughter to join relatives in Melbourne, Australia, giving news of their life there, with a few letters and cards to him from his son in England (Lott spent most of his captivity in the internment camp at Shamshuipo, Hong Kong); folder of official and personal letters and associated documents pertaining to his wartime captivity and release, and to his postwar attempts to receive compensation for loss of effects and disability arising from his HKDDC service, and a revision of his Admiralty pension award; miscellaneous papers including his Royal Naval Yard Hong Kong identity pass and his British passport into which he wrote the names of members of the HKDDC and, insofar as was known to him, what happened to them following the fall of Hong Kong; small group of photographs.
Content description
Letter (6pp ms) written in November 1941 by Harry Lott, a civilian employee at the Naval Dockyard in Hong Kong, to his son in Portsmouth (England), discussing his attempts to obtain his release back to the UK, the reluctance of his wife to accompany him and the issues involved in leaving her and their daughter behind in the colony, and preparations for a potential outbreak of hostilities with Japan (Lott was a volunteer in the Hong Kong Dockyard Defence Corps at the time), commenting also on the general war situation; 23 letters and postcards dated between June 1942 – October 1945, many written to him in Japanese captivity by his wife who had managed to escape with their daughter to join relatives in Melbourne, Australia, giving news of their life there, with a few letters and cards to him from his son in England (Lott spent most of his captivity in the internment camp at Shamshuipo, Hong Kong); folder of official and personal letters and associated documents pertaining to his wartime captivity and release, and to his postwar attempts to receive compensation for loss of effects and disability arising from his HKDDC service, and a revision of his Admiralty pension award; miscellaneous papers including his Royal Naval Yard Hong Kong identity pass and his British passport into which he wrote the names of members of the HKDDC and, insofar as was known to him, what happened to them following the fall of Hong Kong; small group of photographs.
History note
Cataloguer SWW