Everything tagged: HKVDC

John Prettejohn Pte 2681 Wounded 19 Dec 1941 at Wong Nei Chong Gap.  Interned as POW at Shampshuipo, transported on Toyama Maru 1943 to Nagoya #2 Branch Camp (Narumi) working in locomotive factory.  Repatriated to HK after war.   DBS Senior Prefect 1934-35.  Reporter for SCMP to 1973.

He is mentioned in the list of POWs (though with some mistakes in the name):

And also in the 1941 Jurors List:

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

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.

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.