Cedric Overton SHACKLETON [1891-1971]

Submitted by Alan Ho on Wed, 06/21/2023 - 10:09
Names
Given
Cedric Overton
Family
Shackleton
Sex
Male
Status
Deceased
Born
Date
Birthplace (town, state)
Newcastle
Birthplace (country)
England
Died
Date

Lieutenant Colonel Cedric Shackleton was a powerfully built man, not very tall but with strong facial features. He was polite enough to the Japanese but to me he always seemed to carry a "be damned to you" expression. Much of this was simply natural to him as I recognised from having known him for years, but though I do not recall any incidents, I think the Japanese, sensitive as they were, may have felt that they had met a formidable character.

Some time in 1942, well before August, the Japanese began to pay commissioned officers both staff and patients. Our nurses were not paid nor were any of our working staff. We were paid in "military" yen, which at first I think had the same value as the yen, and Shackleton set up a patients' Comforts Fund and an Extra Diets Fund to which officers made contributions on a scale which at first lacked regularity. On 3 August 1942 Harrison and I wrote again expressing our disquiet about the whole patients and staff situation and advised that all efforts to improve conditions should be financed through a Central Hospital Fund supported by all officers.

I recorded earlier how sometime in 1942 before the departure of our nurses the Japanese began to pay commissioned officers, both staff and patients. In these days members of the Q.A.I.M.N.S. *,  as it was then, were not commissioned and were not paid. I also recorded how Colonel Shackleton started funds from which to finance purchases for the general good. When I succeeded him the funds were reorganised and responsibility for administering them were spread more widely.  

This received money, still on a voluntary basis, from officers in the hospital and occasionally from those in P.O.W. camps in North Point and in Argyle Street, Kowloon.

* The staff included  Q.A.R.N.N.S. ,  (sources : Report of the Matron of the Royal Naval Hospital, Hong Kong)

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c.1942
????