A Eurasian Woman’s Life of Bravery and Endurance on China’s Southern Fringe
Drawing on letters, records and memories, Courage in the Shadows tells the remarkable true story of a brave and resourceful woman, Phyllis Nolasco Da Silva, who lived at the crossroads of cultures and conflicts.
Born in Shanghai into a family with a fascinating history, she learnt much about determination and championing the disenfranchised from her father, who was key to establishing equal rights for Eurasians in Hong Kong.
After marrying, she lived in Macau, where, following the fall of Hong Kong in WWII, she was recruited into a highly successful resistance network linked to British Military Intelligence. Working covertly, managing agents and safe houses, she often faced great danger as Japanese forces advanced. In recognition of her bravery, she received the King’s Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom – a prestigious civilian award.
Phyllis later fought a longer and more challenging battle with similar fortitude as she coped with her husband’s mental illness and its heartbreaking consequences.
Told with intimacy, insight and reverence by her son, this story illuminates a forgotten chapter in the history of the Far East.
https://troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/courage-in-the-shadows
Comments
WW2 British Intelligence into Occupied Hong Kong
I am personally interested in this and other works on this aspects of Hong Kong in WW2.
I was born in Kukong, Kwangtung, in February 1944 while my father Leonard Adams was the British Consular Agent at Kukong 1942-44. My father did not keep a diary at the time (probably on instruction from the Foreign Office lest he be captured) and always refused to talk about this time citing the UK Official Secrets Act. He died in January 1973 unable/unwilling to relate any of his experiences.
After the war, I understand my father was responsible for refugee relief for the Hong Kong Colonial Government December 1945-March 1947.