At first, I thought that this was a duplicate, but it isn't. The small sllghtly balding officer with a typical R.A.F. moustache on the etreme right Is Flt. Lt. Joe Cant. I'm told that he was a very popular officer and was for a few years the officer commanding the linguists at Battys. When his plane was shot down during the war he became a prisoner of war in Germany and, amazingly, he learned Mandarin during that time. (Andrew S)
Date picture taken
25 Dec 1952
Gallery
Shows place(s)
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The officer on the extreme…
The officer on the extreme right is actually my father Donald Charles (Tug) Wilson. He was definitely at Little Saiwan at the time and the photograph is most definitely of him - he had the same moustache until he died!
I was born at the Queen Mary Hospital at Pok Fu Lam in 1954 since when my wife and I have revisited Hong Kong on many occasions.
Kind regards,
Andrew Wilson.
Officers serving meal b
Hi Andrew,
I guess that you must have trawled through quite a few of the individual galleries within the 367 Gallery and I hope that you have seen photographs that will bring back memories of your early childhood, although I suspect that you were too young to know much about the men with whom your father worked at Little Sai Wan.
You will appreciate that when I compiled the 367 Association's photographic record, more than twenty years ago, I had to go on what the men supplying the images (often retrieved by them from long forgotten boxes) remembered about personnel and even places after so many years. In recent years, quite a few contributors to Gwulo have been of great help in solving the mysteries about places but it is unusual that somebody has been able to put a name to a face from the past and rightly correct my mislabelling!
I cannot recall who told me that the officer on that photograph was Joe Cant but I readily acknowledge that you are much more likely to know that he was your own father, Flt. Lt. Donald Charles (Tug) Wilson!
I was told that Joe Cant was for a short time the Officer I/C the linguists at the Battys outpost on the Peak and, if my memory is correct, he probably slotted in before Sqd Ldr Dickie Blythe and Flt Lt Ken Sly, the latter being in that post when he took over from Dickie Blythe in about 1956. I am pretty certain that whoever told me about Joe Cant learning Mandarin following being shot down and becoming a P.O.W. got that right. However, I now see that a basic error on my part is that the man incorrectly named as Joe Cant does not wear any aircrew wings on his tunic, which ex air crew would always do.
There was quite a turnover of personnel at Little Sai Wan with normal tours lasting about 2 to 3 years, although some like my late friend Ken Sly must have done two tours. The structure of R.A.F. Little Sai Wan meant that there were usually three fairly senior officers in charge. The Station Commander in my time was Wing Commander John Seger and he was responsible for the smooth running of the camp itself. The 367 Signals Unit was headed by Sqd Ldr Macfarlane and the Linguist unit at Battys by Flt Lt Ken Sly. The rank that officers held was, as far as I know, partly due to whether they were on short service commissions or permanent ones. The Commanding Officer of R.A.F. Little Sai Wan between 1953 and 1954 was Sqd. Ldr Imrie.
Like you, I have returned to Hong Kong on quite a few occasions, my last visit being in 2007 when I led a party of some 30 old men to re-visit the scenes of their youth. Most had not been back since the 1950s and they were amazed at the changes.
I'm sure that now you have found Gwulo, you will enjoy many happy hours of viewing the photographs and hopefully you will be able to add to the knowledge about them that we all enjoy sharing.
Best wishes Andrew Suddaby
Officers serving meal.
Good afternoon Andrew,
Apologies for my delay in responding, but I have been searching for the attached photo. Tom and Sheila Imrie were close friends of my parents for many years. I imagine that they would have attended my Christening as they gave me a very handsome letter opener as a Christening present. I still use it regularly.
My father joined the RAF as an AC2 in his late teens at some time in the early 1930's. He received a wartime commission on 30th July 1943. He spent the war attached, in some way, to the 8th Army and served in North Africa and, subsequently in Italy. He was promoted to Squadron Leader in or about June 1954 whilst still serving in Hong Kong. See the attached letter from Group Captain L. P. Moore. He died of a heart attack whilst on holiday in Spain on 21st January 1983.
My Christening took place on 2nd May 1954 at St. Andrews Church, Kowloon. Other than my parents, the only other people that I recognize are my God-parents, Stan and Audrey Baker. Stan is the very tall man on the far left of the photograph and Audrey is standing next to the vicar on his left.
Stan achieved notoriety following a formal service event. He was in full dress uniform and had flagged down a rickshaw to take him home. His story was that the rickshaw driver look exhausted. Stan did no more than put his cap on the man's head, placed him in the rickshaw and pulled him all the way to his quarters!
I was only nine months old when we left Hong Kong and so I have no memories of the place from then. My wife and I first revisited in 1992 and we took my mother back in 1994. Since then, we have been many times and are hoping to go again in March/April of this year. We try and plan our visits to coincide with the Rugby 7's.
Kind regards,
Andrew Wilson.
Officers serving meal.