For most of its life it has been the Preparatory School for the younger students who would move up to the main college nearby when they were old enough. But during 1942 it was used as part of the Stanley internment camp, and then to house consular staff.
In early 1942 it was part of the area allocated by the Japanese for the Stanley internment camp, and a group of bachelor male internees moved in to live there. But in March it was separated from the main camp, and used to house the staff from several consulates. Here are mentions in the diaries from the time:
- 6 Mar 1942: '(180) internees (men) to move from Prep.School.'
- 7 Mar 1942: '(180) internees moved.'
- 7 Mar 1942: 'Prep. school orders to clear for Consular bodies. Indians left to make room for them.'
- 8 Mar 1942: 'The unfortunate bachelors who were quartered in the St Stephens Prep School were informed that they had to vacate their premises and move to the ‘Indian Quarters’, another block which had previously housed the Indian warders and which has now been vacated by the Indians.
This is the second time that some of these unfortunate men have had to move, for some occupied rooms in these ‘Married Quarters’ to start with and were asked to transfer to the Prep School which was reserved for single men, or men whose families were not in Hong Kong. I helped carry over some of their medical supplies for them. The cause of this transfer is that the Japanese have moved out (as far as I can make out) all Consular officials, except, one would imagine, the Consular officials of their allies – German, Italian etc. These officers are to be housed in the Prep School. This would appear to be quite contrary to International Law. I believe Consular officials need be given 24 hours notice only to clear out of a place, but they must be given safe conduct to a neutral country – and this the Japanese could not offer I presume, or else they must be treated like ordinary civilians. However, a gang of Chinese workmen were busy building up a wall of these hollow concrete blocks (embedded in mortar) round the edge of the garden. This I presume, is so the Japanese can claim that they are not housed behind barbed wire and therefore not being treated as prisoners.'
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18 Mar 1942: 'The camp takes up the narrow neck of Stanley Peninsula. It is bounded on the north by a line running across the Peninsula just south of Stanley Village and on the south by the road running past the Stanley Preparatory School. Within this area the St. Stephen's Preparatory School itself and certain go-downs on the north-east are out of bounds.'
One of the American diplomats who moved in to the Prep School, Walter Hoffman, described the setting:
- 'In addition to our party, the building also housed the Dutch official party, the Belgian consular party and a family of Belgian civilians. This caused considerable crowding and was very unsatisfactory, but after a month they were removed and we had the building to ourselves. A six feet high stone wall had been erected all around it and served as the bounds of our confinement area, 260 paces in front and 80 paces on the side. There was a small playground in front, within the wall, where we erected a decktennis net, and, the only concession ever made to us, we were permitted to use a tennis court, directly behind our jail outside the wall and almost completely enclosed in a small hollow. Within these narrow limits we spent the entire remaining period of our internment and only on exceptional and very rare occasions was anyone ever permitted to set foot outside.'
Internment by the Japanese at Hong Kong, in the American Foreign Service Journal
The consular staff left Hong Kong on 30 Jun 1942, boarding the Asama Maru as part of the larger group being repatriated to the USA.
After the consular staff left, there were occasional mentions of letting the internees use the Prep School again:
- 5 May 1943: 'Mr Hatori said that it was not possible to extend the limits of the camp to include other buildings (Jap army regulations I suppose) though he promised that in the case of an epidemic the Prep School should be made available as an Isolation Hospital.'
- 11 May 1943 and 12 May 1943: There was talk of the site being used as a boarding school for some of the older boys in Stanley Camp.
But as far as I can tell it was just talk, as the other diary entries suggest that after June 1942 the Prep School was only used by the camp guards:
- 21 Jan 1945: "Clifford Large, who attended the funeral said that old Father Meyer was concluding his part of the service when two Formosan guards came marching up from the Prep School, approached on either side of the grave, presented arms over the grave and then marched away again."
- 23 Jul 1945: "Guards moving up to H.Qs from Prep School."