1. First Aid Posts in Hong Kong, December 1941

Submitted by brian edgar on Mon, 09/30/2024 - 01:48

In Selwyn-Clarke's pre-war outline of the Plan he states that 21 First Aid Posts were planned, but in his report written after the war he says that 19 were used:

some nineteen premises were taken over to serve as first-aid posts. For the most part, schools were used for this purpose, since it had been decided that it would be dangerous to continue schools during hostilities.

These are the First Aid Posts I've been able to identify (mainly from Gwulo and Charles Roland's medical history of the HK war):

  1. Peak Club - Source: 'Efficiency Increases,'  Medical Services Director Gives Findings
    South China Morning Post,  22 Sep 1941, p. 15.  
  2. Aberdeen Island
    • source: Charles Roland, Long Night's Journey into Day, p. 20.
  3. St Louis Institute (Pokfulam Rd)
    • source: Roland, p. 29
  4. Kowloon Cricket Club
  5. Wanchai Market
  6. Fung Keung Factory
    • source: Report by Samuel K. Szeto, CO 129/590/25 (The National Archives, London). Mr. Szete was  Acting Head of the St. John Ambulance Brigade. 
  7. Heep Yun
    • source: Report by Samuel K. Szeto, CO 129/590/25 (The National Archives, London). Mr. Szete was  Acting Head of the St. John Ambulance Brigade. 
  8. King's College
    • source: Report by Samuel K. Szeto, CO 129/590/25 (The National Archives, London). Mr. Szeto was  Acting Head of the St. John Ambulance Brigade. 
  9. Wah Yan College
    • source: "Mrs. Walters searched for information on her husband and later found out in the days after Hong Kong had fallen that a Mrs. G. L. Bagram had nursed a man answering to the description of Mr. Walters at the First Aid Post at Wah Yan College. She later saw Mrs. Bagram who confirmed that she had a nursed a man on 17 December with a ration card and diary bearing the name of A. J. Walters. Mrs. Bagram informed her that the man had succumbed to his injuries." in Re: Alfred Joseph Walters
  10. Salesian Mission
    • source: "The ANS and St John Ambulance nurses in a first aid station in the Salesian Mission in Shaukiwan ..." in WW2 volunteer nurses, part 2
  11. Air Raid Precautions HQ
  12. Maryknoll Convent School
    • source: "[On 8 Dec ...] It took an hour for the planes to leave; and at once M.C.S. [Maryknoll Convent School] became a first-aid post. By noon about twenty auxiliary nurses, who were foreign nationals, arrived. St. Johns Ambulance Brigade doctors were to be on duty also. [On the afternoon of the eleventh] the first-aid post at M.C.S. was disbanded. Instead, the nearby La Salle College of the Christian Brothers was to house the Red Cross. Auxiliary nurses and the Sisters were advised to seek refuge there." in p. 49 of The Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 1921-1969: In Love With the Chinese
  13. St Stephen's College ?
    • source: "Some five or six unnamed Chinese nurses were killed in the temporary military hospital in St Stephen’s College. Their presence in a military facility is a puzzle. One account describes them as wives of British soldiers, but the more likely explanation is that they were ANS or St John Ambulance nurses, perhaps working in a civilian first aid station co-located in the College buildings." in WW2 volunteer nurses, part 2

The first aid station was the first place that would give treatment to an injured person. People with minor injuries would be treated and released, while people with more serious injuries would be sent on to a Casualty Clearing Station.

I think the list above is of the first aid posts that were in built-up areas, intended for civilian casualties and under civilian control.

Note from WW2 volunteer nurses, part 2:

... the Civil Defence Corps Regulations in July, 1941 established an Auxiliary Nursing Service (ANS). ANS nurses, with nurses of St John Ambulance, also staffed first aid stations throughout the urban areas.

There were also first aid posts around Hong Kong that were intended for members of the armed forces and were under military control. In practice, both types were likely used by both wounded civilians and members of the armed forces.

Hi Brian,

I've added the sources I could find to the list at the top of the page. Please could you add sources to the other entries?

Regards, David

Notes about Hong Kong's First Aid Posts extracted from Selwyn-Clarke's post-war report:

CONVERSION OF CIVILIAN MEDICAL FACILITIES TO WAR FOOTING

First-aid Posts. In addition to casualty clearing and relief hospitals, some nineteen premises were taken over to serve as first-aid posts. For the most part, schools were used for this purpose, since it had been decided that it would be dangerous to continue schools during hostilities.

These first-aid posts were sited so as to ensure that wounded would not have to be carried for more than a mile in any district. A mobile first-aid unit was organised on each side of the harbour to be available to proceed to any area where casualties were heavy.

SCHEME OF OPERATIONS

On Hong Kong Island there were three main areas, while the Kowloon peninsula was divided into Kowloon north and Kowloon south. Each area had an Area Medical Officer in executive charge of all medical and health services and this officer had with him the Area Medical Transport Officer and Liaison Communication Officers responsible for maintaining all forms of communication.

When an incident occurred, the A.R.P. warden reported the location, etc. to one of the Report Centres and thence to A.R.P. Headquarters. The Medical Communication Liaison Officer in turn reported casualties to the nearest first-aid post or posts and to the Area Medical Headquarters. In turn, the Area Medical Headquarters collated information and passed it on to General Medical Headquarters and to neighbouring Area Medical Headquarters, after taking such action as might be necessary to organise supplementary aid from other first-aid posts.

The staff of each first-aid post consisted of three private practitioners recruited specifically for the purpose and on eight-hour shifts, a varying number of first-aid parties of four members of St. John Ambulance Brigade stretcher bearers and a number of nurses, either members of St. John Ambulance Nursing Division or of an 'ad hoc' organisation called the Auxiliary Nursing Service brought into being as a supplementary nursing service. The aim was to have groups of 144 St. John Ambulance Brigade personnel in every first-aid post, so that 72 would be on duty for twelve hours per day in shifts. In point of fact, circumstances necessitated the acceptance of a lower standard of staffing of the nineteen posts, some of which had but two doctors and as few as twenty-four stretcher bearers. A senior member of the Medical Department was seconded to act as Supervisor and Training Officer to the first-aid post personnel.

MOBILISATION

The long-expected blow fell on the morning of December 8, 1941 simultaneously with the destruction of the greater part of the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbour, and followed rapidly by the sinking of H.M.S. Prince of Wales and Repulse in Malayan waters.

Approximately 1,000 stretcher bearers and nurses belonging to St. John Ambulance Brigade manned the nineteen first-aid posts on the Kowloon peninsula and on Hong Kong Island, where they were placed under the supervision of sixty private practitioners.

CAPTURE OF KOWLOON

Finding that the Japanese had advanced still further by the afternoon of December 11, and had penetrated into the outskirts of Kowloon itself, orders were given to withdraw most of the staffs of first-aid posts and subsidiary hospitals in the more advanced positions and to concentrate the personnel and more valuable equipment in the three main hospitals on the peninsula.

Within four days of the actual outbreak of war in Hong Kong, the whole of the peninsula was in Japanese hands and enemy batteries were established in Kowloon. These batteries shelled the northern face of Hong Kong Island, directing their fire on British battery positions and pill-box machine-gun emplacements guarding the shore line, ammunition, food and fuel dumps, transport parks and other military objectives. As the area is very restricted, it was inevitable that several hospitals and first-aid posts suffered considerable damage from both shelling and bombing. [...] two first-aid posts received so many direct hits that they had to be closed [...]

Thanks, David, I’d missed this.

Interesting that in the event there were as many as 19.
 

I’ll add the sources for the ones I have asap.

Aberdeen FAP - source Charles Roland, Long Night's Journey into Day, p. 20.

St Louis Institute - source Roland, p. 29.

King's College, Central Market, Heep Yun and Fung Keung factory: Report by Samuel K. Szeto CO 129/590/25 (The National Archives, London). Mr. Szetzo was  Acting Head of the St. John Ambulance Brigade. 

I've checked Selwyn-Clarke's pre-war outline of the Plan and he states that 21 First Aid Posts were planned.

My source for 10-12 was the post-war memoir of James Ivor Barnes, who tells us that the Plan was so secret that only the senior member of the Medical Department (under Selwyn-Clarke) had a complete list, but he was sick with sprue on the first day of the hostilities, so Barnes was asked to get them all opened from memory.

I'll add a note to my original post.

Please can I check which market is mentioned in CO 129/590/25? The comment above says "King's College, Central Market, Heep Yun and Fung Keung factory:", but in the list at the top of the page it says Wanchai Market.

Good question.

I missed the comma in the source between 'Central Market' and ' in Wanchai'. "Wanchai Market' is not stipulated - I'll see if I can find my source for this.

Many thanks.