phyllis katharine lang

Hi Stephen,

Your mother's name turns up several times in my Mum's Diaries, and her photo was in a picture of the DGS softball team amongst my mum's photos. I have found lots of information about Brits., soldiers and resistance members incarcerated by the Japanese - but little information about how Eurasians such as my mother coped during the invasion. Like your mother my mum was a DGS girl (and teacher), a student at university at the time of the invasion, lost family, served with the Auxiliary Nursing Service and eventually left HK for Macau. The diary entries indicate that their main interactions were attending choir at St. John's. I was able to contact Robin and Bea February 2017, and although your mother did not recall my mum, she did remember her mother, my Grandma Suzie Lang. Also she recalls other DGS'ers such as Joyce Symons, Dorothy Lee, Jean Gittins and Vivienne Jex - all friends and work associates of my mum.

My mum passed March 2015 aged 93. I believe her wartime experiences were quite traumatic - although rarely discussed and never in any detail. She lost her father and her two uncles to the Japanese, and her boyfriend, after a period in Shamshuipo, was taken to Japan as slave labor. Also a close friend, Eileen Van Bergen, about whom I only know from a diary entry - no info. on how she died. Finding my mum's diaries after her death, led me on a fascinating period of research that at times seemed like a Hollywood movie of unbelievable events - but also left some major gaps. I have no information on what happened to my mum just after the invasion, when she was presumably serving with the ANS. She does make brief reference to nursing later in her diary and I know she advised Canadian Soldiers not to escape, I also understand that she had to hide in a locker at one point - but no further info. 

Thanks for reaching out - I am happy to help with any questions - Jon