Everything tagged: HKVDC

Anatole was born with the family name Zavadsky, but his father, Nicholas Alexander Zavadsky (violinist and photographer), changed the family name to Tonoff after arriving in Harbin China in 1921. Within a year or two, Anatole's parents divorced. His mother, Nina Engelgardt (mezzo soprano) married Vladimir Trachtenberg (violinist), and they remained in Harbin and Shenyang until 1959. By about 1930, Anatole had arrived in Hong Kong with his father, and his father's mother Claudia Gruzin.

Boris Milenko was born in central Russia during the Russian Revolution - the civil war which followed resulted in the Milenko family, along with many other White Russians who opposed the Red Russian communists, relocating to Harbin, Manchuria in 1920. Boris' father (Yuri Lukich Milenko) was a lawyer in St Petersburg prior to the Revolution, and continued to practice as a solicitor in Harbin from 1920 until the late 1940s.

“My activities commenced in Argyle Street Camp towards the end of Summer of 1942 when I began to speak to one of the Chinese drivers of the ration lorries, which used to make daily visits into the Camp.  I got some items of local news from him and then started the system of bringing in Chinese newspapers through him.  This went on for many months.

My father, Charles McConnell Sloan was born in Hong Kong in 1914, the son of John Sloan, an employee of the Taikoo Sugar Refinery.

In December 1941 he was the Night Reception Clark at the Repulse Bay Hotel.

He's mentioned in the Jurors Lists for 1938-40 inclusive with that job.

Notes on the POW camps he was at in Japan from the Roll of Honour website:

Hiroshima 5B - Innoshima

(Earlier Yahata - Mukaijima Branch Camp then  Fukuoka 12B)

In December 1941 he was the sub-manager of the Repulse Bay Hotel.

Philip Cracknell writes:

His grave is in the Hong Kong Cemetery:

The Hong Kong War Diary site lists him as a member of the HKVDC:

Rosselet, Charles Simon Lance Corp. V3871 (XD5)