Dick Cloake was a sub-editor on the Telegraph, a Brisbane afternoon tabloid, when I was a third -year cadet reporter in 1958. I had expressed interest in working in the Far East and Dick suggested I write to the SCMP. He gave me a reference and I was hired. I spent nearly two years there before being sacked for getting married without the permission of the SCMP directors.
I've recently written a long piece about another SCMP journalist from this period, and also a Stanley internee, Vincent Jarrett ("Colonial" from the Old Hong Kong columns between the wars) - see the recent vol. 63 of the Journal of the RAS Hong Kong. While researching Jarrett's intriguing life and background, I learned that Richard (Dick) Cloake (1909-1990), from Toowoomba, Queensland, had been working for the Rockhampton Bulletin when, in 1938, he left to join the SCMP. At the SCMP he began as a reporter, then was successively cable editor, night editor and news editor. He was interned in Stanley, as we see. When the British returned although Cloake did not join Ben Wylie, George Giffen and Lam Yung-fai to produce the memorable single 13cm x 28cm SCMP news-sheet on 30 August 1945, he did subsequently return to the paper along with Frederick Franklin and John Luke (ex-combatants from Sham Shui Po), but only until he went on leave, flying out in December 1945 (see SCMP, 9 Dec 1945, p.4). While on leave he decided to stay in Australia where, as we can see from Phil's contribution, he returned to local journalism. However, from what I can trace, he remained a stringer for the Post until the early 1960s.
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SCMP staff 1941 photo Dick Cloake
Dick Cloake was a sub-editor on the Telegraph, a Brisbane afternoon tabloid, when I was a third -year cadet reporter in 1958. I had expressed interest in working in the Far East and Dick suggested I write to the SCMP. He gave me a reference and I was hired. I spent nearly two years there before being sacked for getting married without the permission of the SCMP directors.
R.J. Cloake
I've recently written a long piece about another SCMP journalist from this period, and also a Stanley internee, Vincent Jarrett ("Colonial" from the Old Hong Kong columns between the wars) - see the recent vol. 63 of the Journal of the RAS Hong Kong. While researching Jarrett's intriguing life and background, I learned that Richard (Dick) Cloake (1909-1990), from Toowoomba, Queensland, had been working for the Rockhampton Bulletin when, in 1938, he left to join the SCMP. At the SCMP he began as a reporter, then was successively cable editor, night editor and news editor. He was interned in Stanley, as we see. When the British returned although Cloake did not join Ben Wylie, George Giffen and Lam Yung-fai to produce the memorable single 13cm x 28cm SCMP news-sheet on 30 August 1945, he did subsequently return to the paper along with Frederick Franklin and John Luke (ex-combatants from Sham Shui Po), but only until he went on leave, flying out in December 1945 (see SCMP, 9 Dec 1945, p.4). While on leave he decided to stay in Australia where, as we can see from Phil's contribution, he returned to local journalism. However, from what I can trace, he remained a stringer for the Post until the early 1960s.
Stephen D