Pre-war:
| "He was a White Russian, as old as the century, and had escaped from Omsk, on the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway, where his father was a senior officer. His father and mother and one son were captured by revolutionaries and executed forthwith. Another brother, and one sister, and himself escaped into North China where his brother died and his sister escaped by sea to USA. He, Assesserov, spent about 6/7 years in Harbin then about 6/7 years in the Nanking, Ichang and Shanghai areas. About 1932/33, Chiang Kai Shek was still fighting the Japanese, and also Mao-tse-Tung’s communists, and he decided to go to Hong Kong. He found plenty of work, spoke good English, and several other European languages, and was encouraged to join the H.K. Volunteer Defence Corps." [1] |
In 1940 he was a Clerk of Works with the H.K. Engineering & Construction Co., Ld., living at 19 Kimberley Road, Top floor, Kowloon [2]. Next year he'd become an Assistant with Shewan Tomes & Co., Ld., and moved to 30 Mody Road, Top floor, Kowloon [3].
When the Japanese invaded in 1941, he served as Lance Bombardier 3296 with the 2nd Battery of the HKVDC at Bluff Head Battery, and as infantry in the final fighting on Stanley Peninsula [5][6]. After the British surrender he became a POW [7].
In 1945, shortly after the Japanese surrender, the British fleet entered Hong Kong's harbour. One of the men on board, Tom Forrester, went ashore on Hong Kong island, where he bumped in to Mr Assessorow. The two men got on well, and agreed to meet up again and climb to the top of Tai Mo Shan. On that second outing they made it to the top of Tai Mo Shan, but on the descent they were captured by Chinese soldiers and held for several days before being released. Forrester has written an account of those events [1].
On 18 Mar 1947 Assessorow became naturalised as a British Citizen. In his application [4] he says he was an Engineer, living on the top floor of 2 Hart Avenue in Kowloon, that he was Stateless, and that he was married to Alexandrine Assesserow (nee Lode).
Forrester eventually lost touch with Assessorow, but heard that he had moved to New South Wales in Australia.
Just a few years later on 9 Jan 1953, Assessorow died suddenly. At the time he was living in Menindee, a small, remote settlement in western New South Wales. He was working there as an engineer with the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission. He is buried in the Broken Hill Cemetery [8].
Not a famous man by any means, but what a range of experiences he'd had in his life.
Sources:
- BBC WW2 People's War: Taken Prisoner by one of our Allies
- 1940 Jurors List
- 1941 Jurors List
- Naturalisation Certificate: Wadim Fedorovitch Assessorow, ref: HO 334/256/3890
- List of the 2nd Battery's members at hongkongwardiary.com
- Article No. 2 Battery, HKVDC during the Battle for Hong Kong - December 1941 by Philip Cracknell
- LIst of Volunteer Defence Forces-Prisoners of War
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/161891818/wadim-fedorovitch-assessorow (the photos on that page include a couple newspaper clippings reporting on his death)
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