Evacuees arrive in Australia on Indrapoera

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Submitted by David on Thu, 12/19/2013 - 22:27

((I'm not sure the date they actually arrived. Please leave a comment if you know.))

Here's a film clip showing the evacuees from Hong Kong arriving in Australia:

http://www.t3licensing.com/license/clip/48050587_4400.do?assetId=clip_8…

A couple of the suitcases show names: "W.B.Penney", and "Whyte". Can you recognise anyone else?

Book / Document
WW2 Evacuations from Hong Kong
Date(s) of events described
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Comments

Was this the  Empress of Japan?  I have a note that Mrs Lysaught sailed with her daughter on that ship, arriving in Australia on 16th August 1940

Hi Patricia,

Henry Ching writes to explain that although they left Hong Kong on the Empress of Japan (see http://gwulo.com/node/17009), that only took them as far as Manila. Several different ships took them on to Australia from there.

He writes:

Drawing on the excellent research work done by Tony Banham on this subject, I think the luggage may have belonged to W.B.Penney, wife of William J.Penney, and Betsy M.Whyte, wife of S.J.Whyte.  Both Penney and Whyte were in the Dockyard Defence Corps.  Their two wives travelled on to Australia from Manila on the Indrapoera.

So that identifies the ship in the film clip as the Indrapoera. I don't know if Mrs Lysaught & daughter were on the same ship to Sydney or not.

I've made pages for Mrs Lysaught & her daughter so they appear on the list of evacuees. They're made under your name in case you can edit them to tell us any more about them.

Regards, David

The entry on Tony Banham's website for 11 March 2012 has some more about this, and a slightly different edit of the same film:

11 It’s amazing what turns up on the good old interweb. I found this video of the August 1940 arrival of Hong Kong evacuees in Australia. Of course, for security reasons the authorities couldn’t name the ship involved. But a careful look reveals the appearance of J. E. Harvey's and W. B. Penney's labeled luggage. Looking at my lists, these two were both on the Indrapoera. The 1940 censors would never have guessed that anyone could have put 2 and 2 together 72 years later!

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/a-new-home/query/evacuees