Sex
Male
Status
Deceased
He's listed in the 1938 Jurors List as working for Jardines, but I don't see him in other years' lists.
| c | Parsons | Thomas Maurice | Mercantile Assistant | Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ld. | 1 | Stubbs Road |
In December 1941 he was a Lieutenant in the HKRNVR, commander of MTB 27.
After the British surrender he took part in the famous escape with Admiral Chan Chak on Christmas day, 1941.
This archived copy of www.hongkongescape.org shows Parsons in several of the photos of the escape party after they reached Waichow. It also notes that Parsons 'Returned to Hong Kong Post War'.
Comments
Escaped POW met Parsons in Colombo
Ralph Goodwin escaped from the Shamshuipo POW camp in August 1944, the start of a long and circuitous journey back to his home in New Zealand. One of the great surprises along the way was meeting Parsons - who had also escaped from Hong Kong - shortly after he arrived in Colombo:
Lt.-Cdr. Brotchie, RNVR, met me at the airport at Colombo, and then I had one of the greatest surprises of my life, when Lt. Tommy Parsons, RNVR, came along to take charge of me. Parsons had been in the 2nd MTB Flotilla at Hongkong, in command of No. 27, and in company with the other four surviving boats he had made a successful escape from the Colony on the night of the surrender. The sound of those motors warming up on Christmas night, 1942, is still with me whenever my thoughts drift back, just as I heard it at that time, from my hospital bed. My feelings were confused and violent. Pleasure that some of the boats were still afloat and would yet cheat the enemy; anger at my own helpless impotence; despair when the low roar faded into distance, and the feeling that the last link with freedom had gone.
At a later date, during our captivity at Argyle Street Camp, Mr. Parsons, senior, received a letter which informed him that Tommy was in hospital in England, after being wounded in an action in the English Channel. That was the last news received of him prior to my escape from Shamsuipo, and it gave me a great surprise to learn, when at Kukong in northern Kwangtung, that Tommy was then in Foochow as a naval intelligence officer. From that place I sent a note by a runner and forgot all about him, so I could scarcely believe my eyes when he walked out to greet me at Colombo. It transpired that he had followed me closely out of East China, had flown past while I was at Kunming, and was then stationed temporarily in Colombo. We had three years’ news to catch up with, and we talked late into the night.
Source: pages 212-213, Hongkong Escape, by R.B. Goodwin