Both Selwyn and Hilda Selwyn-Clarke are in London attending a reception held by the China Campaign Committee to welcome them home. Also present are Mr and Mrs Michael Lindsay, both recently returned from visiting the Communist headquarters in Yenan.
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There's a Stanley wedding in Aberdeen - but the city in Scotland, not the village in Hong Kong. It takes place in Beechgrove Church and the bride wears a woolen suit with wine accesories.
Sub-Inspector John W. MacDonald of the Hong Kong Police marries Miss Mary G. Lay. The couple remember the day back in Stanley when they agreed to marry and the special rice 'party' they held to celebrate.
The South China Morning Post gets out a Christmas edition:
Christmas Scenes
First Real Holiday For Four Years
Colony Celebrates
Franklin Gimson writes to Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke from his Yorkshire home.
A. W. Brown, who ran the Stanley canteen, is awarded an OBE. In the immediate aftermath of liberation, he was Controller of Dried Foods, returning to his job as manager of Lane Crawford when the Civil Affairs arrived. He tells a reporter he had no idea the award was coming and doesn't know what it was for.
John Gielgud and 21 members of the forces entertaintment organisation ENSA arrive from Saigon for a 5 day run of Noel Coward's play Blithe Spirit.
Source:
REPATRIATION NOTICE No. 66
The S.S. “STRATHMORE” is expected to leave for the UNITED KINGDOM during the first week of April.
It is anticipated that accommodation will be available for the undermentioned persons
I'm so pleased to have found this group! I come from Vancouver (which is practically a colony of Hong Kong), and I'm so excited to be planning my first visit to the island in November of this year. My grandfather was a pre-war mountaineer who joined the RAF in late 1941. He spent the next few years flying over Burma, plus 2 seasons running fitness and survival training to RAF pilots in Kashmir. Following the war, he delayed his return home to England in order to see a bit of the world, and volunteered for a 6-month posting to Hong Kong.
AIR DISASTER, 19 KILLED IN DAKOTA CRASH AT KOWLOON, WORST PLANE TRAGEDY IN COLONY’S HISTORY, INQUIRY TO BE HELD
Here's the report that IDJ posted from the 27 Jan 1947 edition of the SCMP:
MOUNT PARKER AIR CRASH
Gold Cargo Worth US$15,000,000
Scattered Over Hill-slope
ENTIRE CREW OF FOUR PERISHES
Henry Ching writes:
CNAC plane XT-104 crashed on Basalt Island on 21st December, 1948.
David Pickerell investigated this in the mid-2000s, and has written up a good report:
http://www.cnac.org/sundby03.pdf
Thanks to IDJ for the pointer to this.
23 passengers and crew were killed when the plane crashed after hitting the wall of the Braemar Reservoir.
There is more information in this thread: http://gwulo.com/atom/15674
A Skymaster operated by POAS [Pacific Overseas Airways (Siam) Ltd] crashed at Mount Parker on 11th March 1950. All 18 passengers and 8 crew members were killed.
Newspaper clippings from IDJ:
IDJ adds this one, noted in the Civil Aviation Department Annual Report:
The Civil aircraft concerned was a DC-3 of Siamese Airways which on the 9th April, 1951 crashed into the sea, a mile or so east of Cape D'Aguilar. Sixteen persons were killed ...
IDJ found a later reference to it in Peter Moss's book "No Babylon". Moss describes an outing on a trawler from Aberdeen, that pulls up what he believes to be a DC3's landing gear in its nets.
Over 60 years ago, Gordon Randall made the headlines:
Here's how he remembers the day's events:
All of the crew & passengers on board survived, despite the plane bursting into flames.
I recently heard a story about a privately owned Spitfire crashing into Sai Kung's Port Shelter some time in the 1950's. Do any of the old timers (or historically minded new timers) have any recollection of any stories related to this - or is it just an urban rumour?
This was held on reclaimed ground in Kowloon. Ground is reclaimed from the sea, simply by pushing in scrap earth until the pile is high enough to rise above the water.
The Circus was held in a tent as at home. The seats were merely wooden benches. However for an extra 10c. you could have a bamboo mat.
Most of the audience were Chinese, who had brought their children along.