INTERNED - DECEMBER 1941

We were dancing in the Rose Room of the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong on the evening of Saturday the 6th December, 1941.  During the evening an announcement was made on the loudspeaker, recalling all service personnel to report to their headquarters immediately.  It was an ominous sign that war with Japan was close at hand.

At 5:30am on Monday, the 8th December, my husband, who was the Hong Kong Airport Manager at that time, was 'phoned informing him that war with Japan was imminent, and that he was to go to the airport at once.

At 7am the Japanese bombed the airport which I could see from our flat, and I felt there and then that I must be a widow, for I could not visualise anyone escaping death in that terrible bombing.  But my husband did survive and stayed there until the…

((The following text is undated:))

With my friend Carmen Hailstone, I was at my First Aid Post at the Kowloon Cricket Club attending to the wounded.  Eventually, the Japanese advanced to the next street to us, a terrifying thought.  Suddenly Cliff Large, 19 years old, came dashing to rescue his mother who was with us, telling us that we must get away at once to Hong Kong…