Description
Object description
Extract from a more extensive memoir (60pp ms) recording his experiences during the Second World War, living and working in Hong Kong as a hotel manager for the Shanghai Hotel Company at the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1939, training with the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (HKVDC) with the rank of sergeant as part of a Mobile Column, the Japanese attack on the colony in December 1941 and his unit's part in the defence of Repulse Bay and Stanley village, going into captivity following the colony's capitulation on the 25th December, initial confinement at North Point before being transferred to the Shamshuipo camp, vignettes of life in the camp and of some of his fellow-POWs, transportation to Japan in December 1943 (?) in the prison ship ASAMA MARU and his subsequent imprisonment in the newly-established Narumi camp, giving a very informative picture of the camp's evolution during the time he was in it (and in which he played a part in its administration on the prisoners' side), air raids and Allied supply drops over the camp towards the end of the war, and the final evacuation of the camp in September 1945, concluding with his repatriation to the UK via the Philippines and North America; with a small number of associated documents including military / identity passes, handwritten ration tables etc for Narumi camp, letters to his family from captivity, and other written ephemera.
Content description
Extract from a more extensive memoir (60pp ms) recording his experiences during the Second World War, living and working in Hong Kong as a hotel manager for the Shanghai Hotel Company at the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1939, training with the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (HKVDC) with the rank of sergeant as part of a Mobile Column, the Japanese attack on the colony in December 1941 and his unit's part in the defence of Repulse Bay and Stanley village, going into captivity following the colony's capitulation on the 25th December, initial confinement at North Point before being transferred to the Shamshuipo camp, vignettes of life in the camp and of some of his fellow-POWs, transportation to Japan in December 1943 (?) in the prison ship ASAMA MARU and his subsequent imprisonment in the newly-established Narumi camp, giving a very informative picture of the camp's evolution during the time he was in it (and in which he played a part in its administration on the prisoners' side), air raids and Allied supply drops over the camp towards the end of the war, and the final evacuation of the camp in September 1945, concluding with his repatriation to the UK via the Philippines and North America; with a small number of associated documents including military / identity passes, handwritten ration tables etc for Narumi camp, letters to his family from captivity, and other written ephemera.
History note
Cataloguer SWW