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Mrs Grace Rose Smith (75) died.  She was blind.

Mabel and I were digging a garden on our tiny allotment on the ex-football ground, when Mabel fell over the edge, 16 feet on to the concrete slope leading to the hospital.   She arrived at the feet of Dr. Hackett, and Nursing Sisters Mrs. M. J. Staple and Miss I. Warbrick ((who were blood sisters)).

When I got down to Mabel, she was conscious but dazed, half-sitting on one side, being tended by Dr Hackett etc. I raced to hospital to get a stretcher, and saw her taken to the hospital.  She was wearing grey slacks (once Dad's trousers), an old converted shirt of Clifton's, her red white and blue jumper and Welfare shoes; also her best mosquito net camp-made pants which (and she was most disgusted) they cut off her. Then I ran to find Clifton - her new boyfriend - and my Mum, who was playing bridge with the TribblesOlive heard about it while in the water queue.

There was a blackout that night, but somehow Professor Digby and the others worked like Trojans to see to Mabel.

Death from cancer of Grace Rose Smith, aged 75. Mrs. Smith, who was blind, had a daughter and grandson in camp.

Source:

Philip Cracknell at http://battleforhongkong.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/stanley-military-cemete…

Fine, moderate.

Appointment made with Dr. Hargreaves.

Choir practice 5.30pm.

With Steve after.

War news good for us.

Black-out orders more strictly enforced.

Wrote music am.

OBJECTIVE: Fly reconnaissance mission over Hong Kong

RESULTS: Reconnaissance photographs are taken that show a 325-foot ship sinking in the channel where B-24s laid mines in Victoria Harbor on January 11.

TIME OVER TARGET: Unknown, but during daylight

AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Unknown, but likely a single F-4 or F-5 from the 21st Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron

AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Unknown

ORDNANCE EXPENDED: None

JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: Unknown

AIRCRAFT LOSSES: None

SOURCES: Original mission reports and other documents in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

Information compiled by Steven K. Bailey, author of Bold Venture: The American Bombing of Japanese-Occupied Hong Kong, 1942-1945 (Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press, 2019).