Sub-Lt. William B Haslett, HKRNVR - the naval officer that disobeyed orders

William Benjamin Haslett was born 11 February 1894. He was a Marine Engineer from Belfast. He had been based in Hong Kong for several years and had joined the HKRNVRon the outbreak of war in 1939. at the age of forty-five. He was appointed to the Mine Watching Branch.  He was initially based at the Mine Control Station Lamma (MCSL) located at Chung Am Kok.  The HKRNVR were responsible for the minefields which consisted of traditional contact mines with spiked detonators and electronic mines that could be detonated by remote control from two shore stations.  Haslett describes the MCSL as being on a hill top with a flight of 130 steps up from the road. There was another station based at Shek-o Beach known as Mine Control Station Tathong (MCST). 

Haslett was transferred to Tai Tam Indicator Loop Station (ILS). This was situated at Tai Tam Tuk below the dam. The indicator loops were laid on the sea-bed and could identify the movement of a passing submarine or surface ship. Whilst stationed at Tai Tam ILS he had a heart attack. He was taken to HMS Tamar sickbay where he recalls waiting in great pain to see a doctor. The doctor immediately arranged for him to be transferred to Kowloon Hospital where he was seen by Dr Uttley. He was transferred to Queen Mary Hospital where Dr Wilkinson determined he had suffered a Coronary Thrombosis and would need to be hospitalised for two or three months.  

On discharge he reported back to Lt-Cdr Swetland, Mine Warfare Officer at HKRNVR headquarters on  HMS Cornflower and after a period of leave was assigned to Mine Control Station Tathong (MCST) based at Shek-o as a Sub-Lt and Maintenance Engineer. He moved his personal effects from his flat in Prince Edward Road, Kowloon to a Chinese village house on the beach at Shek-o. It must have seemed idyllic at times with the war in Europe far away - but the war clouds in Asia were gathering. Only a few months later, on 8 December 1941 the Japanese Imperial Army crossed the border into Hong Kong.

On 18 December the Japanese effected a landing on the North Shore of Hong Kong Island. An order came to detonate the remote-controlled minefield, to destroy the station and report to the senior naval officer at Stanley Fort.

Now some confusion arises as to the facts. His commanding officer (although same rank) Sub Lt Nissim recalls ordering all officers and men at the Mine Control Station Tathong (Shek-o beach) to proceed forthwith to Stanley Fort. There were five private cars available with preference given to those who were elderly or not very fit which would have included Haslett since he was recovering  from a heart condition.

Sub-Lt Nissim and Sub-Lts Fogwill and Landbert and WO Robertson claimed that Haslett insisted on going home to his house in the village where he had a valuable stamp collection and other personal effects and that he stated that he had no intention of leaving the village. In their opinion he was deserting his duties by not following instructions to leave with the rest of the detachment. Haslett recalls going back to pack some of his valuable belongings and returning to the station  to find it deserted and that Chinese villagers were already looting the premises of emergency rations and other items.

Haslett went up to Shek-o Club which was an exclusive and expensive golf and recreation club surrounded by the commodious bungalows of the wealthy Europeans who lived there. Club membership came with villa ownership. Haslett recalls how the No 1 Steward  informed him that he was the only European left in Shek-o although this proved incorrect as a Mr & Mrs Dawson-Grove were still in residence at their villa  No. 13 Shek-o.  They had not been informed of the evacuation. They were a retired couple of mature years. Herman Dawson-Grove being sixty-four and his wife Ethel being fifty-five. They had a son of seventeen who was a student at HKU.  He was manning a First Aid Post at or near the university. Another son Anthony (Tony) Dawson-Grove was a doctor and serving a Surgeon-Lt in the HKRNVR. He was a well known physician before the war. He was interned in the military camps. After the war he became a partner in Dr Anderson & Partners.

Haslett stayed with the Dawson-Groves sharing what limited tinned food they had available. He slept in their youngest son's room. On Saturday 20th December in the late afternoon a group of Japanese soldiers with fixed bayonets led by an officer with a drawn sword and a revolver came quickly up the drive to the property. They were let in. Then after helping themselves themselves to what food was available they commandeered the family's two cars. The soldiers clambering in and Herman Dawson-Grove was ordered to drive one  and his wife Ethel the other, with Haslett hanging on whilst standing on the running board.

They were ordered to drive not towards Shek-o Village as they had expected but in the other direction  towards Big Wave Bay. A short distance down the road they joined up with a company of Japanese soldiers who were resting there. Some officers were studying maps and with them was a group of Chinese informers or guides, whether volunteers (fifth columnists) or coerced  one can only surmise. 

At this point Ethel Dawson-Grove was ordered to return home. Haslett describes how they then went over the hillside, which would have been quite a steep climb, toward Fort Collinson. The fort  equipped with 6-inch coastal defence guns had been evacuated and the guns disabled on 19 December and the battery personnel withdrawn to Stanley Fort.

They then proceeded along Cape Collinson Road - then down into a valley and up the steep hillside to the road linking Shau Kai Wan with Tai Tam Gap. This four or five  mile march had been quite a strain on both men. Herman being elderly and asthmatic and Haslett still recovering from his heart attack. They were made to carry equipment and when they flagged they were kicked and prodded to keep going. Herman was faring less well because of his asthma and was eventually dragged along by the Chinese guides - one of whom was trying to remove his gold cuff links. At this point of pain and exhaustion he pleaded with the Japanese just to shoot him.

They spent the night of the 21 December lying in the open without water. The japanese placed them at their front  in an exposed position near where their sentries were posted. As dawn came up on 22 December they watched a mass of Japanese infantry which Haslett estimated to be of about 1,500 to 2,000 men pass through Tai Tam Gap and then turn right in the direction of Tai Tam and Stanley. They were followed by Japanese soldiers with mules carrying light guns and other equipment.

After this they were left alone and allowed to return to No 13 Shek-o where they were reunited with Ethel Dawson-Grove. For the next few days there was little sign of the Japanese until after the surrender. However looting continued with Chinese gangsters from nearby Shaukeiwan going to Shek-o to plunder the empty properties. Ethel Dawson-Grove drove one of the cars to Shek-o Club and obtained a rifle and ammunition which helped fend off looters.

On 26 December the day after the surrender of Hong Kong the first lorry load of Japanese soldiers arrived in Shek-o. They were allowed to remain at No 13 until  31st December when they were driven off to HK and subsequent internment. I believe they were initially interned at HKU where they were reunited with their youngest son Glascott Eyre Dawson-Grove. 

The Dawson-Groves survived the three years and eight months of internment.  At Stanley they were billeted in the Indian Quarters. Sub-Lt Haslett, wearing civilian clothes, was also interned at Stanley Camp.  

Did Sub-Lt Haslett desert his post. I think the answer is yes.  Did he disobey an order - the answer again  has to be yes. He claimed he went back home to pick up his valuables and by the time he returned the station had been evacuated. His colleagues believed he deserted. It has to be said he was not sufficiently fit to have been on active service. He lost all his possessions. He returned to UK on the Empress of Australia as a sick man and he died not long after the war, in January 1947, aged only fifty-two - just  another of the tragedies of war. 

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Source:
Unpublished letters/reports held at HK GRO

Additional Information

He was not married. He died in Belfast. His possessions such as he had  went to his younger brother Albert Haslett. 

John George Frelford - 1st Bn Middlesex Regiment

John George Frelford is listed as a civilian internee at Stanley Camp billeted in Block 9 Room 12 . This was part of the main building of St Stephen's College. The room accommodated twelve male internees including a number of wireless officers and technicians, previously employed by the GPO (General Post Office), and some former China Maritime Customs (CMC) staff, and two merchant navy men both of whom died during their period of incarceration.

   In the log of internees held at the Imperial War Museum - John Frelford is listed as a Shop Assistant, but there is more to him than that. I wonder whether his room-mates knew that he was really a Private in the 1st Battalion the Middlesex Regiment. This regiment was a machine gun regiment, and equipped with the Vickers Medium Machine Gun (MMG) and primarily manned static defences, for example, the beach defence pillboxes that were located at intervals around the shoreline of Hong Kong Island. They fought particularly well in the Battle for Hong Kong and lived up to their reputation as the Die Hards.

   They were a unit that seldom withdrew, and they were men that were seldom down-hearted, with their London and cockney humour never far away. The Middlesex Regiment was formed in 1881 from an amalgamation of the 57th (West Middlesex) Foot Regiment and 77th (East Middlesex) Foot Regiment. They, or rather their forbears, the 57th  of Foot, won the epithet of the Die Hards in the Peninsular War at the Battle of Albuera fought on 16 May 1811. The Colonel had his horse shot from under him and was seriously wounded. With his regiment outnumbered, he called upon his men Die Hard,  57th, and this they did despite heavy casualties. Every year the Middlesex Regiment would celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Albuera when a band of men stood fast and died hard.

The Battle of Albuera

I was reading a report submitted by Lt Lewis Bush, HKRNVR, to Commander Vernall, his commanding officer. The report was submitted sometime after the war and accounted for his movements after the British capitulation. At one stage Lt Bush was being held, for suspected espionage, in Gendarme HQ at Happy Valley, in what had been a former convent school. Bush was married to a Japanese lady, Kaneko, and before joining the Navy in 1940 he had taught English in Japan, and while doing so had learnt to speak Japanese fluently. In the letter to his commanding officer, he recounts his incarceration at Gendarme  HQ. 

"Until January 23 I was left entirely alone and was not even questioned.  There was a Private of the Middlesex Regiment  there at the time, Felford by name, whose conduct was excellent and proper in every way and who was a real credit to his regiment". (1)

In Lewis Bush's book The Road to Inamura (1972), we learn a bit more about  John Frelford.

"The next day a Japanese officer  came to question us .........I took the opportunity  to ask him about Frelford, who was now to be seen walking about the courtyard. He said that the man had been left in their charge by a Japanese unit which had gone south to  the Dutch East Indies and Guadalcanal. They had been requested to give him every consideration as he had saved the life of a Japanese soldier by tending his wounds. I pointed out  that such special treatment would only put the man in a very embarrassing position and I was sure he would like to join us. Shortly after this Frelford was telling us his story.

He had been fighting in the Stanley area and was cut off from his unit, most of whom had been killed, when he stumbled on a Japanese soldier behind a rock. The man was unconscious and bleeding from wounds in his head and chest. He gave him water and bound his wounds, but (Frelford must have then passed out and) just as he opened his eyes, four or five Japanese appeared and were going to shoot Frelford when the wounded man spoke up". (2)

"A Japanese officer inquired:

'Why did you assist an enemy'.

'A wounded man, whether he be friend or foe, is just the same. Any human being would act as I did', replied Frelford. 

From that moment the Japanese made him their special charge. Frelford was a decent fellow  and a good soldier and had a union jack wrapped around his waist which he was keeping for the day of victory." (2)

John Frelford was well treated by the Japanese who were astonished by his actions. Japanese soldiers very often slaughtered wounded enemy soldiers especially those that could not walk. When Lt Bush ran into him at the Gendarme HQ in Happy Valley, Frelford had been allowed to go out and buy things during daylight and had been given an appropriate pass. However, he felt the disapproving looks of passers-by who no doubt assumed he may have been some sort of collaborator. 

   It is not yet clear when he was transferred to Stanley Internment Camp I suspect in March or April 1942. He was away from his friends and former comrades, who were mostly held in Sham Shui Po POW Camp. However, he was much better off in the civilian internment camp at Stanley rather than the more brutal military POW camps. Lt Bush had also been put in Stanley Camp, but he insisted that he should be held with his HKRNVR colleagues, and was eventually moved to Sham Shui Po,  and later transferred to Japan. I assume Frelford wanted to stay in Stanley Camp and may have been concerned that his comrades from 1/Mx would have disapproved of his having taken favourable treatment from the enemy.

   There were quite a few HKVDC and HKRNVR members who ended up for various reasons in Stanley Camp rather than POW camp. There were also several civilians who ended up in military POW camps. As far as I know, there were only two other regular soldiers in Stanley Camp, and they were also there incognito. There was a Canadian soldier Private James Clayton Riley of 'A' Coy Royal Rifles of Canada who was caught up in the siege of the Repulse Bay Hotel. Brigadier John Price in an article entitled "The Repatriated Rifleman" writes that:

"He was a man greatly addicted to liquor  whose record in the Army had only been distinguished by his genius for running foul of the authorities and getting into trouble. Many civilians had taken refuge in the hotel which greatly complicated  its defence and when it became evident that it could not be held  it was decided  that all soldiers must leave so that the civilians could surrender as noncombatants and not have their existence imperiled by the presence of troops. The hotel was well stocked with food and drink. Riley true to form, had deserted his post, found the cellar where liquor was kept and proceeded to get so drunk that he passed out. He was found by an NCO  who, to get him out of the way of the defenders, put him in a room pending further action". (4)

He was left behind in the hurry when the rest of the military vacated the hotel during the night while trying to extricating through Japanese lines to reach the British troops still holding out at Stanley. He was then discovered by the civilian guests and hurriedly provided with civilian clothes, as the civilian guests were worried about the reaction of Japanese troops if they discovered a soldier amongst them.  He was taken captive with the rest of the civilians and marched to North Point (Druro Paint factory), and then later held at the Kowloon Hotel which was used as a holding place for civilian prisoners. In late January 1942, he was incacerated in Stanley Camp with other civilians under the assumed name of James Riley. His occupation was given as a Cook.

Brigadier Price takes up the story again.

"In the late Autumn of 1942 when I was an inmate of Argyle Street Officers Camp, I received a postcard from Stanley Camp  signed James Riley Ryan, and again another during the winter of 1943. Finally another card arrived from May Waters, one of the Canadian Nursing Sisters who had been taken to the civilian camp, mentioning the same name and saying how helpful  he had been and sending his regards to us all. I made some enquiries and eventually Major Young, the Commander of 'A' Coy, remembered the incident of the drunken soldier at the Repulse Bay Hotel. We felt sure that this must be the same name but, as any action on our part would most certainly have resulted in his death, we did nothing at the time."(4)

He was repatriated in September 1943 together with other Canadian civilians who were interned at Stanley Camp. On arrival in Canada, he did make himself known to the authorities. However, I suspect he may have missed out the dereliction of duty and getting drunk whilst on duty defending the position at Repulse Bay Hotel. At any rate, he was granted a discharge and returned to civilian life.

"The final chapter took place  in Toronto in 1946. Major Young attending a meeting there, had occasion  to take a taxi. He thought the driver looked vaguely familiar but decided he was probably wrong. However when he paid his fare, the driver leaned out the window and said 'Give my regards to all the boys Major' and drove off. Major Young realized it was Riley and could only say a few chosen words to the vanishing taxi."(4)

The other regular soldier in Stanley Camp was a Sgt. Hammond of the RASC  who together with Staff Sgt Patrick Sheridan were Army Bakers. They had been kept out of camp, to perform baking and bread making duties under the supervision of a decent Japanese officer, Captain Tanaka. They worked with some civilian bakers including Thomas Edgar, a Master Baker who had worked for Lane Crawford before the war. Sgt Hammond had pointed out to Captain Tanaka that they were military bakers, but they were treated as civilians and later incarcerated at Stanley Camp, except for Staff Sgt Sheridan who was able to escape from Hong Kong to Free China. 

   On the Stanley Camp list, there is one other internee whose occupation is openly described as a "soldier". This is Walter Donald D'Evan Twidale. He was in Camp with his daughter Rose Marie Twidale born in September 1936. There is no reference to a spouse so I assume he was either widowed or divorced as he married in Stanley Camp to Beatrice Rose Cullen in July 1942. Reading the diary of Franklin Gimson, the Colonial Secretary, the diary which is held at Rhodes House, Oxford University, refers to Twidale as being something of a troublemaker.

"Darkin of the Police came to see me on the subject of Twidale who is apparently a very bad hat. He has married into the Cullen family whose reputation is none of the best. I also addressed Yamashita on the subject of Twidale. He promised to deal with him by threatening that he should send them to gaol if they did not reform." (5)

Just to add to this mystery I did see on Ancestry.com that there was a Walter Manders Twidale who was born on the same date, 22 April 1917, as the person in camp listed as Walter Donald D’Evan Twidale. I am not sure if this is one and the same person, but I assume it must be. This Walter Twidale with the same birthdate, but a different middle name had enlisted in the Regular Army (Royal Leicestershire Regiment) for seven years in December 1935. He was discharged in January 1936, a month after joining, which seems strange unless for conduct reasons, and then re-enlisted in April 1936. I assume that although listed as a soldier he must have been an ex-soldier. Perhaps he was discharged for a second time.  

   Let us return to John Frelford with whom we started this story. I searched for information on him to no avail, except that I found there was a file under his name at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. On a trip to London, I made my way to the museum and read the file on Frelford, but there was very little in it. There was just some correspondence with the Ministry of Defence (MOD). A letter to MOD was written by his wife, as apparently, Frelford was blind at that time. The letter which was dated 19/3/88 was sent from an address in Warle, Weston-Super-Mare. The letter was as follows::

"Dear Sir: I have to inform you that I am writing a story of the supernatural [he apparently had clairvoyant ability] covering events that happened at Maryknoll Monastery, Stanley Peninsula on December 25 1941. I wish to dedicate my book to the memory of the officers and men of D Coy  1st Battalion, Middlesex who surrendered to the Japanese  on December 25 1941 and were then killed by the Japanese for surrendering."

He then asks for a list of the names of those soldiers in his company who were put to death at and around the Maryknoll House for inclusion in his book.  He asked if the troops which attacked the Maryknoll were Japanese or Korean. They were, of course, Japanese as they were front line troops engaged in close-quarter combat. Korean and Formosan troops were more often used for guard duties. The letter from Frelford has a handwritten annotation from what was then the Middlesex Regimental Museum noting that the address of Major Waldron had been passed to Frelford in order to assist him with his enquiry. Major Waldron had served as a Colour Sergeant in 1/Mx during the Battle for Hong Kong in 1941.

Maryknoll House, Stanley

We know that Frelford was a member of 'D' Coy, and his capture occurred on 25 December. 'D' Coy commanded by Lt Scantlebury was based at Maryknoll House. During the battle for Stanley, the Maryknoll garrison was bypassed by Japanese troops as they pressed on towards, the Stanley Village, St Stephen's College and Stanley Fort. There were also several members of No. 1 Coy, HKVDC who together with 'D' Coy, 1/Mx were defending the mound on which the Maryknoll Monastery stood. On realising that they had been bypassed they tried to extricate in small groups back to British lines. Most were killed or captured, and those that were captured whether wounded or not were put to death. Lt Scantlebury and a number of officers and Other Ranks were executed by bayoneting in an alleyway adjacent to the nearby Carmelite Monastery.

   At the end of the day, an act of mercy in the midst of battle - helping an injured enemy soldier - was repaid by a brutal enemy with a degree of kindness and gratitude, it would have been churlish to refuse, and as a result, John  Frelford lived on to be able to tell the tale, but unfortunately, I'm not sure that he ever did - tell the tale.

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Sources

(1) Report to Cdr Vernall, HKRNVR from Lt Bush, HKRNVR  (HK PRO)

(2) "The Road to Inamura" by Lewis Bush published by Charles E Tuttle Company in Japan in 1972

(3) File in National Army Museum  - NAM19940-03-330-1

(4) Appendix L - The Repatriated Rifleman  by BrigadierJohn Price in The Royal Rifles of Canada in Hong Kong  1941-1945 by Grant Garneau

(5) Franklin Gimson's Diary 15 Aug 1943

Shark Attack at Tweed Bay - Sept. 1945

The photograph taken today, and depicted below, shows the grave of Police Sgt Herbert Jackson in Stanley Military Cemetery. The tragedy is that having survived the war and the period of internment - he died in a savage shark attack whilst swimming at Tweed Bay beach adjacent to the civilian internment camp where he had been confined since January 1942.

He was, by all accounts, a popular police officer aged 32 at time of his death. Before the war he had worked in the Fingerprint Dept. He was originally scheduled to have been repatriated on 22 September on the British Aircraft Carrier HMS Smiter.  His passage was delayed, and although free he was still resident at Stanley Internment Camp which was increasingly deserted as internees left to man essential services in town or were repatriated on troop ships, hospital ships and fighting ships of the Royal Navy.

   On Sunday afternoon, 23 Serptember 1945, he decided to go swimming at Tweed Bay Beach this popular pre-war swimming beach had been opened by the Japanese for internees to use during the summer months. A few others were on the beach enjoying the afternoon sunshine. Herbert Jackson was swimming near the rocks close to the beach.

   The China Mail for Monday 24 September, describes how the peaceful afternoon was shattered by a cry of terror, as a huge shark savaged him, the sea all around him turning red as his life blood drained away. He was dragged ashore where he died from shock and loss of blood.

   Amongst those on the beach that day were Captain Arthur Braude of the Hong Kong Volunteers. He had been recently released from Military POW Camp. His wife Irene had been an internee at Stanley. She was a trained nurse and had commanded the Nursing Detachment of the  Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corp. Captain Braude rushed into the water, and with others that were on the beach,  helped pull Herbert to the shore.

   John Karsten Stanton, a fifteen-year-old boy,  who with his family had been interned for three-and-a-half years at Stanley, happened to be on the beach that afternoon with friends. In his memories he writes:

We heard a cry for help. We all jumped in and swam to the rock and splashed to frighten the shark off. We brought him back to the beach covered in blood, his left buttock missing.

He was carried up to the nearby Tweed Bay Hospital but he was already dead by the time they arrived. Geoff Emerson, historian and author of Hong Kong  Internment, 1942-1945 writes on Stanley Email   Group  that 'some forty years ago when I was interviewing former Stanley internees, Mrs Irene Braude told me she was on the beach the day Sgt Jackson  was attacked by the shark and helped to pull him out of the water.'  Mrs Braude immediately provided first aid but there was little that could be done and the China Mail reports (see below)  that Herbert died within minutes of being dragged ashore. The shark had virtually severed his left leg and ripped his upper leg and buttock off causing huge loss of blood.

So tragic to have survived the privations of Stanley internment camp only to be killed so violently and unexpectedly.

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Michael Koodiaroff - HKVDC

During World War 2 in Hong Kong,  the POW Camps at North Point, Shamshuipo and Argyle Street were characterized by appalling conditions. The military internees were on starvation rations and many developed illnesses associated with malnutrition. Epidemics of dysentery and diphtheria claimed many lives. The Japanese would not allow sufficient medicines into the camp and for most, it was hard just trying to stay alive.

   The civilian internment camp at Stanley was also a harsh environment and the internees also suffered from malnutrition and other illnesses. The rough-hewn graves of internees at Stanley Military Cemetery testify to the difficult conditions there but given a choice one would rather be in a civilian internment camp than a military POW camp.

   A number of civilians were unlucky enough to end up in military POW camps, whilst several volunteers and regular soldiers were lucky enough to end up in Stanley Civilian Internment Camp. One of these was Michael Alex Koodiaroff who had just turned forty and worked as a Hotel Assistant at the Peninsula Hotel. He was married to  Elizabeth and they had one child, a boy, also named Michael, of seven years.

   Michael had joined the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corp (HKVDC) in July 1939. He was a member of the Armoured Car Platoon commanded by Lt Mike Carruthers,  a unit that was in the thick of the action in the short and bloody battle which commenced in Hong Kong with the Japanese invasion on 8 December 1941.

   He was patrolling Castle Peak Road,  guarding the left flank of the Royal Scots positions on the Gin Drinkers Line. In the early hours of Thursday 11 December, the driver of their armoured car swerved to avoid a large coil of barbed wire across the road and the vehicle ended up overturning into a ditch. Michael's left foot was crushed by ammunition boxes. Their armoured car was out of action and they were picked up together with their machine guns and ammunition by a passing army lorry. Despite the injury to his foot he carried on until Christmas Day - when the British surrendered,  at which time he was admitted to the War Memorial Hospital on the Peak where he remained until 4 January 1942.

Now let's pick up the story direct from Michael Koodiaroff:

During the period of the war  I had lost contact with my wife and son but had heard that they were probably evacuated to May Road together with other wives and children (of HKVDC members). On 4 January I asked the Sister at the hospital if I could visit my wife and son. I left the hospital and on the way met a car driven by a Chinese and asked the driver if he could take me to May Road. 1

However, they were stopped by a Japanese military patrol.

One of the Japanese soldiers saw me in uniform and began to speak to me in Japanese. I did not understand him, he became angry and slapped my face several times. He took me to the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank building where I was taken in front of a Japanese officer and through his interpreter I explained who I was and my reason for driving in the car. I was placed under arrest  and detained in the Guard Room until the following morning, 5 January,  when the Japanese interpreter told me to go with a Chinese detective and collect my family and report at the Murray Parade Ground. 1 

Murray Parade Ground, on Garden Road, was where British, American and Dutch (enemy) civilians had been ordered to report for internment.

When I returned to Murray Parade Ground with my family, I again saw the same Japanese interpreter. 1

Koodiaroff explained that he was a Hong Kong Volunteer and should be interned with the troops.

He (the interpreter)  said it makes no difference which camp you go to so long as you are interned. With a crowd of about 400 people, we were then taken to the Tai Koon Hotel. 1 

The Tai Koon Hotel was one of a series of third-rate, cheap hotels and brothels on the waterfront where European internees were held until 21 January 1942 when they were transferred to Stanley Camp. Koodiaroff and his family remained in Stanley until liberation in August 1945.

I travelled with my family on the SS Empress of Australia as far as Colombo and then we embarked on the SS Madura for Australia, arriving in Sydney on 10 November 1945.

SS Empress of Australia

SS Madura

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Addendum 1:

A google search shows Michael's son also Michael (born 11 Dec. 1934) joined the Royal Australian Navy in January 1953

Addendum 2:

Henry Ching writes in response to this blog which was posted on Hong Kong local history site www:gwulo.com 

"Thanks for the info on Koodiaroff’s route from the hospital to Stanley.  It includes some aspects that I was not aware of – he was lucky not to have been shot when he was picked up in uniform. The little I knew I got from his son we were together in the Red Cross camp at St Mary’s, west of Sydney, in late 1945.

 There were at least 80 Volunteers interned in Stanley (not counting the nurses), more than half of whom were in the Stanley Platoon, and about 15 were in the so-called Hughes Group at the North Point power station.  Generally speaking, these tended to be late recruits who joined up during or just prior to the battle and who had no uniforms, which is probably why they were treated as civilians.

Sources:

HKVDC Files held in Hong Kong Public Records Office

1  Quotes are taken from a memo written by Michael Koodiaroff in the above files