Everything tagged: police

James Hill, A93. He was one of three Japanese language translators used by Franklin Gimson during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. He could speak Cantonese (3 certificates), Hakka (2 certificates), Hoklo (1 certificate) and Japanese (4 certificates).
Born 4th April 1905 in Dundee, Scotland.

Died 14th February 1984 at Harefield Hospital Middlesex. His ashes were placed on the grave of his deceased wife, Nora Hill (nee Jack) on her grave at Barnhill Cemetery, Broughty Ferry, Scotland.

John Black's list notes he was a Policeman, born in 1896.

Walter Thompson was a Superintedent in the Hong Kong police when the Japanese attacked in December 1941.

He was wounded by shell fragments during the hostilities and interned in Stanley after the surrender. On the night of March 18, 1942 he began an escape with Gwen Priestwood. On their way to Chungking, they were helped by Chinese guerrillas, and Thompson decided to operate with them behind Japanese lines. He ended the war as a Lieutenant-Colonel.

Robin Basil Levkovich was a policeman of Russian origin who had become a naturalized Briton in the years preceding the war.

During the hostilities he worked for Food Control and was captured by the Japanese while on a mission to Kowloon. He was held in the Kowloon Hotel for a number of months after the surrender on the grounds that he'd worked for the British Government, but was released in March 1942 due to the intervention of his family dentist, who was in fact a Japanese officer.

Ian Bodie writes:

My father was born in 1916 in Dundee and joined the Hong Kong Police in 1938.  He was interned in Stanley between 1942 and 1945.

Like many who went through the ordeal at the hands of the Japanese, he refused to speak about his experiences in the Camp to his family. I am now trying to find out if anyone in the group has any recollection of him in Stanley.