Everything tagged: HKVDC

Osmond Skinner was born in Lee in the Lewisham district of London and his birth was registered Quarter 4 Lewisham 1900. In 1911 he was living with his parents Alfred and Edith Skinner in Lewisham.

He married age 31 to Hazel Agnes Goodburn (1900 - 1987)  in Manila on 22 August 1931

Consular Birth Indices

Elizabeth Anne Skinner born in Manila Philippines abt 1932/3 aka Anne. She was the child of Osmond Skinner and Hazel Agnes

Passenger List May 1945 Hong Kong to London

Hazel A Skinner 44 Elizabeth  Skinner 12 Richard Skinner 10

James Mackenzie Jack inherited the engineering company W.C. Jack & Co. Ltd. from his father, William Jack, on his death in 1919. He was serving in Salonika with his brother at the time of his father's death. I don't know his brother's name, or if he returned safely to Hong Kong. When my uncle, Leslie Warren, had to wind up C.E. Warren & Co. in May, 1941, James Jack asked him to take over the Jacks branch in Penang while the then MD took six months leave. Jack became a POW and was in the fifth transportation to Japan, where he died in a POW camp on 15 September 1944.

Lieutenant Ralph James Shrigley - Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. Born Scotland. Buried Hong Kong 1944.

Extracts from his obituary:

• Born in HK
• Educated in Britain
• In 1941, fought with the HKVDC, then imprisoned as a POW
• Postwar, worked in China
• Moved to Manila in 1950 where he later founded several companies including Acquila and Pandiman

Mr Whitley is mentioned on Tony Banham's list of members of the HKVDC:

• Whitley, Tomas Sydney Signalman 1321 (XD5)

Mr Smith is mentioned on Tony Banham's list of members of the HKVDC:

• Smith, Douglas Thomas Corporal V1982 (XD5)

John Hubert Bottomley (Jack) was born in Baildon, West Yorkshire in 1899, the oldest of four children of Fred Bottomley and Elizabeth Tyson.   As a young man Jack served in World War I and was gassed as well as receiving serious shrapnel wounds in Flanders. He was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.

After the Great War he studied engineering at Bradford Technical College (now Bradford University).  He passed the Oxbridge exams but the family could not afford to send him to Oxford or Cambridge.

He was added to the list of authorised architect in Hong Kong in 1930. See item 692 in the Government Gazette, Nov 21, 1930.

Here's his entry in the 1941 Jurors List: