Everything tagged: Diary / Memoir

Published by Blacksmith Books in 2014 (303pp).

The back cover of the book states:

Published by The Commercial Press (H.K.) Ltd, 196pp.

This book is a lightly edited copy of Grenville Alabaster's journal, which in turn was based on his diaries covering the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in December 1941, the years of internment in Prince’s Building and Stanley Camp that followed, and the eventual liberation in 1945. We have several journals from that period available to read here on Gwulo, and recent years have seen a steady flow of other diaries and journals being published, so what makes Alabaster's worth your attention?

Japan marched into Hong Kong at the outbreak of the Pacific War on December 8, 1941. On the same day, Graham Heywood was captured by the invading Japanese near the border while carrying out duties for the Royal Observatory. He was held at various places in the New Territories before being transported to the military Prisoner-of-War camp in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon. The Japanese refused to allow Heywood and his colleague Leonard Starbuck to join the civilians at the Stanley internment camp.

Name: Chinese Pass, 1852.

Location: Wisconsin Historical Society Archives – Main Stacks (Reading Room) File 1852 May MAD 4 /14/File 1852 May.

Summary: Chinese pass to the American ship Far West, William A. Briard, commander, Canton, China, May 1852, written in Chinese.

Notes: Presented June, 1868.

Ida Florence Andrews- Levinge 1892-1965

Nurse, Prisoner of War and West Sussex resident.

Ida Andrews- Levinge (nee Levinge) was born and spent her youth on the edge of Lough Ree, near Athlone, Co Westmeath, Ireland.

Lt Laurence Kilbee was in command of MTB 08, Motor Torpedo Boat 08, during the short 19 days of the war in HK. The diary was buried before capture and retrieved after the war, during which he was a POW at Argyle Street Camp for 3 and three quarter years.

Extracts from the diaries of Major John Monro MC RA

Margaret E. Jay describes her experiences in the Stanley Internment Camp during WWII in Hong Kong.

MEMORIES OF A JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMP

By Margaret E. Jay (Martin)

This is part of the story of Mrs Grace Smith (John Anton-Smith's grandmother), a blind lady who was brought from the UK to Hong Kong to be looked after by her son, Raymond. He employed a lady known only as Chan, who became a devoted companion, to drive her around and otherwise see to her needs. John inherited this battered little diary, measuring only 6cm x 8cm, in which Grace, with the help of an unknown scribe, recounted various events during her time in Stanley Internment Camp.