Charles Thomas Foley MCDONALD [1910-????]

Thanks to Carroll McDonald for sending us the following information:

My name is Carroll McDonald and I was born on Hong Kong. Both my parents had been interned by the Japanese in the camp at Stanley for the duration of the war. I was given a photocopy of a list of the people there and both their names were on it. Your gwulo list does not mention them. My father's name was Charles Thomas Foley McDonald. He worked in the HK dockyards before the war and was captured at Stanley Fort along with my mother, her sister and future husband. My mothers name at the time was Evelyn Francis Hicks and she married my father in the camp. She was already engaged to my father when they were captured. Her sister Irene was also married in the camp and her husband's name is listed as R. Fitzgerald.

After the war my parents were brought to Australia to recover. I have a photo of my father taken at this time and he looks just like the men in the photos on gwulo i.e. "a bag of bones".  My father returned to HK when the men were asked to help with the reconstruction but my mother remained in Australia for some months as she had a baby. She returned to HK when it was considered safe to do so but my baby sister died on the way back. She was buried on Timor as the ship had to stop for water there.

I hope this information will help you update your records and my parents will be recognised for what they went through.

I see that Carroll's father was a Prison Officer in 1941 (he joined on Dec 19th, 1940), and a Private in the Stanley Platoon., explaining why he was captured at Stanley Fort.

Regards, David