Those interested in the World War Two history of Hong Kong might like to know that the papers of my father-in-law, Colin McEwan, were recently donated by his family to the National Library of Scotland, so they are now accessible to all. His first-hand accounts of the Battle for Hong Kong, the Christmas Day escape of Admiral Chan Chak and the MTBs - in which he played a leading role as a member of the SOE commando group in HK, Z Force - and the activities of the British Army Aid Group in China, of which he was a founding member, make for lively reading. As well as his day-by-day war diary the papers include letters and poems and photos and an unpublished book consisting of colourful anecdotes about life with the BAAG in a Chinese village behind Japanese lines -- Tales from the City of Inexpensive Benevolence. This original material formed a major source for my book, Escape from Hong Kong, published by HK University Press in 2012.
The WW2 papers of Major Colin McEwan MBE can be accessed via the National Library of Scotland online catalogue using this link: https://manuscripts.nls.uk/repositories/2/resources/22752
- Reference: Acc.14634/1-9.
- The catalogue gives this summary of McEwan's career:
After graduating from Edinburgh University, training at Jordanhill School of Physical Education in Glasgow, and teaching in Ayrshire for two years, Colin McEwan joined the Colonial Service and arrived in Hong Kong in April 1939. Shortly after his arrival, he joined the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, and served with ‘Z Force’, part of the Southeast Asian branch of Special Operations Executive, in Hong Kong and southern China as well as briefly in other parts of Asia.
Shortly after the surrender of British forces in Hong Kong to Japan on 25 December 1941, McEwan escaped into China by motor torpedo boat, alongside more than 60 Chinese and British intelligence, naval and marine personnel. He subsequently served with the British Army Aid Group in southern China, assisting prisoners of war who had escaped from the British colony. The papers provide a detailed account of these events.