Everything tagged: United Kingdom

POW in Singapore. Subsequently sent to Kinkaseki POW Camp in Formosa (Taiwan). Worked tirelessly in defending the rights of Hong Kong war veterans.

Charles Messer was educated at Merchant Taylors’ school and later, Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. He was appointed as a cadet in 1897. He was the captain superintendent of the police force from 1913 to 1918 and was promoted to the financial secretary from 1918 until 1931. 

He served in the LegCo: https://app.legco.gov.hk/member_front/english/library/member_detail.asp…

Andrew Salmon first came to Hong Kong in 1937 as a junior member (trumpeter) of the Royal Artillery. He fought the Japanese and was taken prisoner at Stanley in December 1941. He was in Shamshuipo camp and then was sent to Japan on the ill-fated ‘Lisbon Maru’. He survived the ship's sinking by an American submarine (USS Grouper) and was recued by Chinese fishermen from the Chusan Islands. He was subsequently recaptured, shipped to Japan and was in Osaka POW camp until the end of WWII. He was repatriated to the UK via USA/Canada.

I am looking for info about my father, Cecil Henry Dalton, a former major with the Royal Army Service Corps, who was demobbed in 1953. It was only through a chance discovery on the internet, two years ago, that I discovered that he had died in 1966 in Hong Kong, where he is buried in Happy Valley cemetery. He had been stationed in Hong Kong for the last years of his military service but returned there after being demobbed, to live as a civilian. I sent for his death certificate which led to new discoveries thanks to the archives of the South China Morning Post.

Maj (Ret'd Brian Finch MCIL served in The Middlesex Regiment with one of the survivors of the Lisbon Maru Incident.  He later learned Chinese and during his time in Hong Kong had close links with The Lisbn Maru Association of Hong Kong.  He translated their account of the incident seen through the eyes of the Chinese fishermen who rescued hundreds of British prisoners of war under fire from Japanese soldiers on 2 October 1942. The translation was published in November 2017 by Proverse Hong Kong.    

I note with interest that HK actor, Anthony Wong Chau-sang (黃秋生), is still searching for his information regarding his British father, Frederick William Perry. It seems not much is known other than he worked for the Colonial Govt and left when Anthony was still a toddler.

Laura Dransfield was the wife of Albert Dransfield who latterly ran his own import/export company, A. Dransfield & Co. She had two daughters, Laura Woolnough Campbell (probably by a previous marriage) and Dorothy Olive Dransfield. The Dransfields were close friends of the Warrens and Leslie Warren lived with them after his wife and children left for the UK in 1938. They seem to have rented The Towers. Albert Dransfield died in November 1940 and a letter from Leslie to his family in May 1941 relates that Laura had settled in Johannesburg but would have preferred to be in the UK.