John Francis PETER [1908-1974]

Submitted by Andrew Hicks on Wed, 07/17/2013 - 19:14
Names
Given
John Francis
Family
Peter
Sex
Male
Status
Deceased
Born
Date
Birthplace (town, state)
Cape Town
Birthplace (country)
South Africa
Died
Date
(Day & Month are approximate.)

I have been researching the work of the Friends Ambulance Unit who distributed medical supplies and services in China throughout the nineteen forties.  Towards the end of the forties, Hong Kong became their entry and exit point and they worked at the North Point Relief Camp while waiting for entry permits to China.

The longest serving member was John Peter who came to China over the Burma Road after the evacuation of Rangoon and was finally ejected from Chungking by the communist regime, arriving in Hong Kong where he settled for the rest of his life.  I have collected many details of his life and several photos and I'd love to be able to share these with the two daughters who he raised in Hong Kong.

One daughter was Mary Magdalene Peter and all I know about her comes from a letter she wrote in August 1975 from the address of 75, Section 11, Rennies Mill.  The letter tells a former FAU colleague of John's that John had worked with Gus Borgeest on the refugee rehabilitation project on Sunshine Island (Kung Chau), leaving there about 1962, possibly fmoving to Rennies Mill where he and perhaps she may have worked at the Haven of Hope Hospice and other Catholic institutions. 

John Peter was a Catholic, possibly a Tamil of Sri Lankan origins, a seaman said to have a South African passport who reportedly was a circus performer in Rangoon or who worked for a truck dealership there.

The Haven of Hope have failed to find any trace but I'd love to be able to find Mary Magdalene or her sister and to learn more about John Peter and his remarkable life of adventure and service. 

 

I've tried the Haven of Hope who couldn't help.  Any further ideas to find them, please?

Andrew Hicks 

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John Peter was well over six foot and as a striking man had more than his fair share of photos taken. As an Indian in Yunnan and Szechuan he was also an unusual sight.  He drove trucks, was a mechanic rising to garage manager, maintained X Ray and other medical equipment and worked as a nurse, taking considerable responsibility as a 'bare-faced doctor'.  It was an extraordinary life and I so want to learn more.

John Peter

Hi, Andrew. Sorry - I can't help with John Peter, but I wonder if during your researches you've come across Owen Evans or his brother Llewellyn?

They were both in the Friends Ambulance Unit in southern China in 1941, and Owen was caught by the Japanese attack on Hong Kong and became a prisoner. He was out of Stanley working as a driver until about October 1942 and during this time he became my parents' best man.

http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/more-on-owen-evans-in-1942/

http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/thomass-work-3-outside-stanley/

Hi Andrew,

An interesting man, but those names make internet searches very difficult!

Does anyone know people that worked / lived in Rennies Mill in the 1960s? Perhaps a missionary family? As Andrew says, he'd have stood out from the crowd, and maybe they'd remember him and his daughters.

One search turned up this man, Steven Harrall, who volunteered there in the 1960s: http://www.viaprograms.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=451. It's a long-shot, but maybe he'd know someone?

Have you contacted the Quaker orgainisation in Hong Kong? Not sure they'd have any records, but perhaps they can put you in touch with someone who was in Hong Kong at the time. Gus Borgeest was a Quaker, an the FAU was a Quaker organisation too.

Where else have you tried?

Please let us know how the search goes,

Regards, David

This is all very fascinating. 

I do indeed know a little about Owen Evans of the Friends Ambulance Unit. I can quote from the memoirs of a New Zealand, Lindsay Crozier who was the FAU's official photographer and presumably took the picture below.  Of his time in Hankow he wrote as follows... 'One of the unit members who called in at Hankow was Owen Evans.  He was a quiet Welshman who had been captured in Hong Kong while on FAU business.

He refused to try to escape, believing he could be of support to his fellow prisoners.  As soon as he was released from the internment camp, he made his way up north to join the unit. [FAU.]  As Bob McClure says in his biography [Scott Monroe, "The China Years of Dr Bob McClure", 1977.  McClure was the FAU's first and very charismatic leader.], "A man with loads of courage, never gets down, never gives up, and never any recriminations - one of the most humorous and humble men I have ever met... He makes a trail of friends wherever he goes.  Few people whom I know have given up as much to do as great a service to their fellow men as Owen Evans".  Owen was one of those who radiated goodness and a strength which came from his deep Christian convictions.'

What a wonderful tribute to him.

Owen Evans, FAU

Thanks for this, David.  I should certainly follow up Harrall, though it is a long shot.

A Quaker friend in Hong Kong promised to follow up Catholic sources, John Peter actually being a Catholic rather than a Quaker, but nothing has come of it.  Can you suggest Quaker/Catholic archivists or such to whom I could send an email enquiry?

I also wondered if a letter to or article in the South China Morning Post might be productive.  I am out of touch with its journalists, but can anyone suggest a column in the paper that might run this or someone at the Post who might be interested?  (I know how unsolicited emails to newspapers get lost in in-boxes.)

 I have of course tried the Haven of Hope Hospice who were very responsive but had no records and an elderly Catholic priest on Cheung Chau I was referred to, but nothing came of this.

 There are of course public birth records which would give me Mary Magdalene Peter's birth date but nothing much else, and I fear this may not be an easy process.

Any more ideas?  Catholic churches in the Rennies Mill area should be the best bet.

Help!!

Andrew.

Chapter 6 of this document talks about missionary groups active in Rennie's Mill:

http://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/50177/6/FullText.pdf?accept=1

There were lots of them, so it could take a while!

There is a Catholic archive: http://gwulo.com/Hong-Kong-Catholic-Diocesan-Archives. Maybe they can help narrow down the list to just Roman Catholic organisations.

Regards, David

David,

Thanks for this.

Kenneth Lan On Wai's doctoral thesis about Rennie's Mill looks fascinating and I must follow up the Catholic archives.

Andrew.

Andrew has found out more about John Peter and is now in touch with Peter's daughters. John has summarised the new information at http://www.sacu.org/fau.html - scroll down to the "People to People democracy" section.

He finishes with:

His daughters now know little of his origins or story and they long to learn something more about him and his family by research in Cape Town and Rangoon if anyone could help them with this.

Thanks so much for this.  I am so happy that two of John's daughters were able to attend my recent book launch of my book,  A TRUE FRIEND TO CHINA with the Royal Asiatic Society at the Helena May, Magdalene flying in specially from Taipei.  Meeting them both was an emotional moment and telling the meeting of their father's work in China was special indeed.