Professor Gordon King Escapes from Japanese Occupied Hong Kong

Gordon King was born in London on 7th July 1900 - the son of a Baptist Minister.  After qualifying as a Doctor and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1926, he joined the Baptist Missionary Society to become a medical missionary in China where he practiced medicine until 1936.

He left China for Hong Kong in 1936 when he was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Hong Kong University,  a role he occupied until 1956 albeit interrupted by the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941. He escaped from Japanese occupied Hong Kong and made his way overland to Free China in February 1942,  returning to Hong Kong after it was liberated by British forces in 1945.

He married Dr Mary Ellison also a Baptist Missionary in 1927 and their marriage produced three daughters Alison, Margaret and Ellen.

Let's go back in time to December 1941. In a letter to his wife Mary written after his escape to Free China he recalls taking a friend who was visiting Hong Kong for a drive in the New Territories. It was Saturday afternoon 6th October and "it was a beautiful afternoon and I have never seen the scenery look more peaceful. We did not see a single soldier or sign of military activity".  (1)

That very night Gwen Priestwood was enjoying an evening at the Peninsula Hotel Ball Room attending a fund raising function to support the Allied war effort when the music suddenly stopped.

"T.B. Wilson , of the American President Lines, appeared on a balcony above the dance floor, waving a megaphone for silence.
'Any men connected with any ships in the harbor  -  report aboard for duty', he said , adding meaningfully,  'at once'.
There was a dead silence  for a moment; then the crowd stirred. Men hurriedly said good-by to their companions, got their hats and coats, and left". (2)

Gordon King woke up the next morning on Sunday "to find all the vessels in the harbor steaming at full speed, by about 9 a.m.  there did not seem to be a single vessel left. There was obviously something serious in the wind though we had had this sort of thing happen before". (1) 

One of the ships sailing out that Sunday was the SS Ulysses (see separate posting on this site) which had barely completed repairs and was bombed and strafed the next day by Japanese aircraft as it made it's long way home,  only to be sunk by a U-Boat in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of the Carolinas.

On Monday 8th December Gordon King was awakened by the telephone ringing at 6:30 in the morning. It was Dr Selwyn Clarke the Director of Medical Services  calling to say that the war had begun and Dr King was to open up the the University Relief Hospital. Two hours later Japanese planes were bombing Kai Tak and Sham Shui Po.

"By noon we had the first wards for 100 patients ready for occupation. My staff was Professor Faid as First Superintendent , Jean Gittins as Lady Supt. and about 60 Sisters and Nurses, 5 Pharmacists, 50  student dressers and about 100 coolies. Faid was an excellent colleague all through and so was Miss Gordon. The students were most helpful and handled everything, up to 750 patients although we actually only treated 393 patients during the war with 22 deaths". (1)

Bill Faid, Professor of Physics at HK University died in 1944 in Stanley Internment Camp, after slipping off a roof at the Indian Quarters whilst trying to repair a leaking roof. Jean Gittins was one of the daughters of Sir Robert Ho-Tung and she was later interned at Stanley. One of those students helping with First Aid dressings and stretcher bearing was seventeen year old Glascott Eyre Dawson-Grove (see the post on this site about Sub Lt. William B Haslett) whose parents living at Shek-o had a harrowing time when captured by the Japanese on 20th December 1941. They and their son Glascott were later interned at Stanley Civilian Internment Camp.

After the war ended with the British capitulation on 25th December 1941 - Professor King made up his mind to escape. The university staff, students and various European refugees like Mr & Mrs Dawson Grove were able to remain at the university until 31st January 1942 (some going several days earlier) when they were sent off to be interned at Stanley Camp, where most would languish for three and a half years suffering the privations of over-crowding, malnutrition and lack of medicines.

Professor King writes that "two or three British women needed operations urgently and I got permission of the Japanese Director of Medical Services, to operate  on them at Tsan Yuk Hospital which involved remaining out of internment  a little while longer. Of the people in the (University) compound the only ones, except the Chinese , who stayed out were Bentley (Pharmacist), R.C. Robertson , who stayed out to help the Japanese in the Bacteriological Institute, Jean Gittins and myself with my patients at the Tsan Yuk Hospital". (1) 

Tsan Yuk Maternity Hospital

 The hospital  was opened in 1922 and the building that it occupied and shown above,  still stands. One of Professor King's patients was Kathleen Dallas Hume whose husband Leo ("Tiny") Hume was in Shamshuipo POW Camp he was a Company Sgt. Major in the Field Ambulance Unit of HKVDC. She was heavily pregnant and had to have a C-Section.  Her daughter Barbara Anne in a radio interview described how her mother was taken out of camp and gave birth to her on 6th February 1942 only days before Gordon King escaped. The story goes that she was released under an escort of nine guards and taken to the Tsan Yuk Hospital shown above.  Professor King whispered to her that when she got back to Stanley Camp she would not see him again.

Elsewhere in Hong Kong Jan Marsman was about to make his escape. He had avoided Internment Camp on the strength of a claim of Philippine citizenship . This was being reviewed and he expected to lose his freedom soon. He made his escape on 10th February.

It seems that both Marsman and Professor King made their way through Sai Kung with the aid of Chinese Guerrillas and their own Chinese helpers. Marsman describes getting to an abandoned schoolhouse most likely in the Sai Kung area where he came across Professor Gordon King.  Gordon King in his letter to his wife says little about his actual escape other than "I fell in with two Americans, Marsman and Lavrovm who escaped from Kowloon an hour after I did". (1)

Marsman writes, "our escape party numbered six" (3)  - Dr King and a Chinese bodyguard, two Chinese, one of whom was aiding Marsman,  the other Marsman described as a distinguished looking Chinese, a Russian (Lavrovm) and Jan Marsman himself. They laid up in a sampan for a few days and then dodging Japanese patrols and bandits made their way to Free China.

Eventually Dr. King reached the war time capital of Chongqing where with the support of the British Authorities and Chinese Government he set up Medical Facilities that would allow medical students who escaped from Hong Kong to continue their studies and qualify as Doctors. He was given the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corp. After the Japanese capitulation he returned to Hong Kong and helped re-establish medical services in the war torn colony.

Jean Gittins was a colleague of Gordon King. Her children were staying with Mrs Gordon King and her three daughters in Australia. Gordon King had revealed his plans to Jean Gittins and asked for a 48 hour head-start before his departure was reported. She actually waited for three days before reporting his escape to Dr Selwyn Clarke. She writes "I knew that Selwyn would regard his escape as breaking parole. Selwyn thumped his desk and asked me why I had not reported it immediately". (2)

Not long after this Arthur Bentley, the Head Pharmacist also managed to escape to Free China and Jean Gittins was interned in Stanley Camp.  Professor Robertson took his own life by jumping to his death from a veranda at the Bacteriological Institute in August 1942. He had been depressed by his forced collaboration wit the Japanese.

After the war Professor King remained in Hong Kong until 1956 when he moved to Australia. He was awarded the OBE in 1954. He passed away in October 1991 in Perth, Western Australia.

Dr King in later life

He had the pluck to escape and the luck to succeed in getting away.

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Notes:
(1)   Copy of letter from Dr King to his wife Mary
(2)   "Through Japanese barbed wire" - Gwen Priestwood (1943)   
(3)   "I escaped from Hong Kong" - Jan Marsman (1942) 



Sources:
Copy of letter from Dr King to his wife Mary
"Through Japanese barbed wire" - Gwen Priestwood (1943)  
"I escaped from Hong Kong" -  Jan Marsman  (1942)
"Stanley: Behind Barbed Wire" - Jean Gittins  (1982)
"Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography" - May Holdsworth and Christopher Munn (2012)
Radio Interview with Barbara Laidlaw (nee Hume)   http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/brisbane/conversations/201301/r1065244_12519409.mp3

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. 

.................

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.

...............................................

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.

.............................................

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

..............................................................

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

The last voyage of the SS Ulysses

SS Ulysses was launched in 1913 in Belfast. She was a steam passenger ship with a displacement of 14,647 tons. She was built for Alfred Holt & Co, trading as the Blue Funnel Line, to sail the route Glasgow - Liverpool - Brisbane. Her home port was Liverpool. During WW1 she served as a troopship and carried Australian soldiers to the Middle East and Europe, and American soldiers across the Atlantic. After the war she resumed commercial service for the Blue Funnel Line in 1920. The Blue Funnel ships all took their names from Greek mythology. They all had that distinctive high blue painted funnel. Most of the ships were cargo ships but a few like Ulysses were passenger liners. Ulysses was sunk in April 1942 by a U-boat and this  is the story of her last voyage.

SS Ulysses(Source: Uboat.net)

In 1941 she was in Hong Kong for refitting. Her Captain was James Appleton Russell. The crew were billeted ashore. In September, 1941, whilst nearing completion, the ship was damaged in a typhoon. She had been towed out to a buoy in the harbour, and moored fore and aft, but in the storm, she broke her moorings and ran aground at Green Island, at the western entrance to the harbour. This necessitated further repairs and delayed her departure from Hong Kong. Hong Kong had been living under the threat of a Japanese invasion for several years since Japan invaded  Manchuria in 1931 and the rest of China in 1937. In 1940, many of the British women and children resident in Hong Kong   were evacuated to Australia. In November 1941, two Canadian infantry battalions arrived as reinforcements. The garrison was split into two infantry brigades, one holding the Mainland and the other defending the Island. Hong Kong was on the eve of war, and the Mainland Brigade was already manning the "inner line" known as the Gin Drinkers Line. Tensions were high, but many thought Japan was blustering and that war could be averted. 

In December 1941, Lt Alexander ("Alec") Kennedy, RNVR, commanding officer of MTB 09 one of eight motor torpedo boats based in Hong Kong, had proposed to Rachel Smith. Rachel was the  daughter of Norman Lockhart Smith, the Colonial Secretary. Smith, who  was  known by his initials "NL", was due to retire from the Colonial Government Administration and he and his daughter, Rachel, were booked to sail back to Britain on the Ulysses. Alec Kennedy in a privately published book titled Hong Kong Full Circle 1939-1945 described their departure.

"On the evening of 6th December, the officers and crews of the merchantmen in harbour were recalled to their ships, and the passengers for the Ulysses told to be onboard within 12 hours. I went out to the ship to to say goodbye to Rachel and  "NL" early the next morning. Crossing the harbor the launch passed a coaster which had just arrived from Singapore and had brought among its few passengers the new Colonial Secretary, Mr Franklin Gimson. A steady stream of ships put out from Hong Kong that Sunday morning, all heading south. Ashore the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corp were being mobilised, and the regular battalions were at their battle stations on the border." 

The Ulysses sailed that fateful Sunday, while the Japanese were preparing to attack the American fleet at Pearl Harbour and to invade Hong Kong, Malaya and the Philippines. After one day's passage  from Hong  Kong, and whilst heading for Manila, they heard by wireless that war had begun, and that Manila  was already under attack. Captain Russell decided to change course and sail to Singapore. Early one morning the ship's siren sounded and a loud explosion was heard. The passengers rushed up to the boat deck to find that a Japanese aircraft had passed overhead and dropped bombs, which resulted in near misses and no damage was done. The next day a  Japanese aircraft strafed the ship with machine guns. Again no serious damage and no injuries were sustained. The destroyers HMS Scout and HMS Thanet which left Hong Kong on Monday evening 8th December bound for Singapore had been ordered to look out for the Ulysses, after her distress signal had been received, stating that she was under attack by Japanese aircraft. They found no sign of her. 

Ulysses (Source: Wikipedia)

The ship eventually reached Singapore, causing some surprise, as people thought she had been sunk,   as after sending out the distress signal, the ship had maintained radio silence. She remained in Singapore for a week, where she undertook further repairs. The passengers, including Rachel and her father, were put ashore and accommodated for a week in the Raffles Hotel. Singapore was being bombed and the Japanese were fighting their way through Malaya towards Singapore. Just before Christmas Ulysses departed Singapore for Fremantle after having embarked a large number of women and children evacuees. From Fremantle they sailed to Adelaide for repairs. By this time Hong Kong had surrendered and Lt Alec Kennedy had escaped with the five remaining MTBs to the coast of China and made his way with the other boat crews across country to Free China. It was in Adelaide that Rachel first heard that her fiancé had escaped and was on his way to Burma. After picking up some cargo, the ship sailed via Sydney, and Auckland across the Pacific and through the Panama Canal into the Atlantic Ocean. One of the passengers who joined the ship in Sydney was nineteen-year-old Helen Hills. She and her mother Edith had gone to Australia in October 1941 to stay with relations. When Edith returned to Hong Kong, she decided to leave Helen in Australia where it would be safer. Edith worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse in a military hospital in Hong Kong during hostilities, and her husband, Hebert worked in Air Raid Precautions (ARP). After the British surrender Edith and Herbert were interned at Stanley Camp. Helen had two brothers at boarding school in England and decided to return to England on the Ulysses. She later joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). Stuart, the oldest of her two brothers, joined the Army after leaving school and took part in the invasion of Normandy. He was awarded the Military Cross.

As the Ulysses steamed up the coast of Florida she was involved in a collision. On 8th April 1942 she collided with the Panamanian tanker Gold Heels causing a hole in her hull below the waterline and major damage to her bows. The ship had to slow down, which made her  a target for German U-boats. On April 11th, her luck ran out and she was torpedoed by U-160 off the coast of Carolina. Three torpedoes hit the ship but she settled slowly providing enough time for the life boats to be lowered. Her 195 crew members, which included five gunners, and her 95 passengers, were picked up by an American destroyer, the USS Manley.

SS Ulysses after having been struck by three  torpedoes

The picture above shows the Ulysses' boilers blowing shortly before sinking. This was taken by a US aircraft which first reached the scene. The presence of an aircraft (possibly a  flying boat) probably led to the early departure of U-160. An hour or so later, the destroyer, USS Manley, arrived, scrambling nets were lowered and the the survivors were brought up on deck. They were landed in Charleston and then taken to New York, where they took passage on SS Myrmidon, another Blue Funnel Line ship, back to Britain. The ship joined a convoy (Convoy HX 189) at Halifax on 23rd May 1942 and took sixteen days to arrive at Greenock, Glasgow. 

SS Myrmidon (Source: www.wrecksite.eu)

The SS Myrmidon was sunk by a U-boat in September 1942 off the west coast of Africa. 

USS Manley

In July 2017 I received an email from Mr Roger Lewis who had come across my post on the story of the Ulysses. His mother and grandparents had been on the Ulysses when she was sunk. 

"My mother,Mary Patricia Rowell,had boarded the ship in Austrailia with her parents,her father being Thomas Richmond Rowell (later to be Director of Education in Hong Kong and awarded the CBE in 1950). Apparently the ship was full of rubber from Malaya and therefore did not capsize. In my mother's account she talks of the incredible generosity of the American people. Baroness Rothschild took every passenger to Macy's store in New York for replacement shoes. On her return to the UK my mother joined the WRNS, was on incendiary duty on the roof of St Paul's and was later posted to Bletchley Park where she worked as a cypher clerk on the enigma project. Hopefully this will be of interest."

Roger Lewis also sent me these press cuttings:

Awaiting rescue in the lifeboats

The ship's radio officer had sent a distress message before abandoning ship. In response a US military aircraft arrived at the scene. The destroyer USS Manley reached the area some seventy-five minutes later and rescued all the passengers and crew who had taken to the ships boats. All ten of the ship's lifeboats had been utilised before she sank. For one of the ship's stewardesses, Katherine Lacy, this was the third time she had been torpedoed at sea, but for Lester Pilbean, one of the crew, it was the  fifth time he had been torpedoed at sea and lived to tell the tale. The story of the Ulysses captured the imagination of the American public. The passengers and crew were shown great kindness by the people of Charleston where they landed. In Charleston the passengers were accommodated in the Francis Marion and Fort Sumter hotels. The next day they were taken by train to New York via Washington. They stayed in the Wellington Hotel for ten days. When you look at the faces of the survivors in the newspaper photographs, although they have lost everything, and nearly lost their lives, they don't look downcast, they look indomitable.

The front page of the Charleston newspaper shows in the top left Mrs McAuslin and Mrs Chapman  with their their young children. The photograph top right shows the survivors on the USS Manley as they docked at the naval yard in Charleston. The photograph in the centre-lower section shows Captain Russell thanking the American destroyer commander for their rescue. In the bottom right is Mrs Charlotte Pugh - not looking her 86 years of age.

In the centre is Judith Rowell, Roger Lewis's aunt, then aged 11, and although difficult to seeing the photograph, she is holding three kittens which she had rescued from the ship. The cats mother was the only casualty - she went down with the ship.  On the right is Vera Wickett with her baby son Peter. Vera was known by her stage name Vera Wood and was a well known opera singer.

Captain J.A. Russell was the last to leave his stricken ship. Gibson, his Quartermaster, refused to leave the bridge, and left after searching the ship to make sure that no-one had been left behind. He left with his Captain. There was no panic, women and children boarded the lifeboats first, the crew were efficient. The lifeboats pulled away before the ship sank. It was the last voyage for the Ulysses.

*****************

Addendum 1

SS Ulysses  Passengers list on her last voyage :

Surname First Names Age Occupation Place of last residence Embarkation Port Comments Allan James Malcom  56. (2/11/1885) Bank official Australia Sydney Chartered Bank  - Scottish. Born in 1886 in Scotland. In 1974 they are showmn on incoming passenger list on vessel from SA and Madeira and his occupation is given as retired dentist (?) .  Allan  (Mrs) Nely Speedy  44 (29/9/1894) Housewife Sydney Scottish. A 1925 shipping record shows them travelling with daughter Margaret Eileen from London to  Penang  with ultimate destination as Sumatra. He is listed as 39 yr old banker. Anderson  (Mrs )   Olive Lucy  31 yrs Housewife Malaya Sydney 1948 address in UK was Kensington Close, London, W8. Her place of permanent residence was Malaya. Her 1952 address in UK was in Oxford but permanent address was still Malaya.  No details of husband found but she may have been married to George (Ginger) Anderson a Planter in Malaya. Barton James  R. B.  51 yrs Planter Malaya Sydney His address in UK was given as c/o Lt -Col Barton, DSO  Fermanagh Northern Ireland. Begg  (Mrs) Olive Janie 43 yrs (15/8/1898) Housewife Ipoh, Malaysia Sydney Husband's name was Norman Fraser Buchanan Begg. He was born in 1892 and records show him returning to UK  after the war (and internment in 1945). He died in 1953 aged 61. He had been an Engineer. Her maiden name was Wood.  They married in 1927 in Essex. Their address is shown as 6, Gliddon Road, W14. She died aged 82 in 1980. They had a daughter Dorothea. Bett  (Dr.) Douglas Home Blackader 66 yrs. (2/6/1876) Physician  Australia Sydney Born in New Zealand. Deceased April 1962 (London). After arriving in UK in 1942 they settled in Jersey Channel Islands. Bett.  (Mrs) Olive Cholmely  61 yrs. (24/11/1880 Sydney Maiden name Gore. They married in 1916 in NZ. Blair    (Mrs) Elizabeth Smellie  29 yrs Housewife Singapore Melbourne Scottish from Motherwell. Maiden name Pwttigrew.  Husband was Daniel Dunlop Blaire - resident of Singapore (45 Orchard Road). Her address in UK given as c/o Mrs J Pettigrew, Motherwell, Scotland.  Daniel Blair went out to Singapore in 1938 working as an Engineer for Stewarty McIntyre & Co . He served in Singapore Settlements Volunteer Group. He was interned and died at Labuan on 28 Jan 1945 whilst a POW.  Blair    (Miss) Janice Elizabeth 15 months Singapore Melbourne Bourne      (Mrs) Eileen Peggy 29 yrs (1913) Singapore Melbourne Her husband was Patrick William Bourne who was a PC in Singapore according to manifest. However in 1947 he is shown as Mercantile Assistant Shell Oil Co (Malaya/Singapore)  Bourne Michael John  20 months Singapore Melbourne Boyde      (Mrs)     Nancy Keil  46 yrs Housewife Johore, Malaya  Singapore Scottish. She was born 1895. Her maiden name was Anderson. She died in 1948. Her husband was Andrew Graham Boyd. They married in 1924. He was a rubber planter in Malaya. He was interned at Changi. He remarried in 1950 and died in 1989 at the age of 92. Bryant   (Mrs)  Sybil Mary 43 yrs (12/12/1899) Housewife Japan/Tokyo Sydney Her husband was Air Commodore Walter Edward George  Bryant (1893-1945) who served as Air Attache at British Embassy Tokyo. Her maiden name was Prout. They married 1916.  Bryant  (Miss) Mary Sybil 17 yrs Tokyo Sydney Burden   (Miss) Elsie Grace 40 yrs Teacher Australia Sydney  British national. Address was in Chudleigh, South Devon.  She left UK for Australia in July 1939. Burlington  (Mrs)  Eileen L.  29 yrs Australia Melbourne There is a record of an Eileen Burlington  arriving in London from New York  in 1936,  married tro Charles  Burlington who described himself as a gold prospector in Australia.  They had a child Anita . Not sure if this is the same Eileen Burlington.  Channer  (Miss) Frances Teacher Australia Sydney Chapman   (Mrs)  Betty Irene 29 yrs Housewife Rangoon, Burma Sydney Betty, husband and son flew (Flying Boat) from Rangoon to Sydney (via Singapore, Jakarta, Darwin, and Newcastle). Her husband (Harold Victor Chapman) was a PWD Engineer working in Burma - he returned to Burma and rejoined the family in England in 1943. Betty & Richard boarded Ulysses at Sydney. She is shown with son Richard after being rescued  in a photo on the front page of the News & Courier (Charleston) 14th April 1942. Chapman  (Master)  Richard 6 Child Burma Sydney Adam Chapman contacted me to say that Richard Chapman was his father and Betty his grandmother. Richard wrote of his experiences  See: https://vetpracticemag.com.au/4254-2/ Collins Cecil  W. Civil Servant HK Hong Kong Manifest gives address in London as c/o Cable & Wireless Cooper  (Lt-Col) Thomas 55 yrs India Sydney Employed by Baroda & Central Indian Railway Co. Locomotive and Carriage Superintendent. I dont see him on the Myrmidon Passenger List . He boarded the ship in Sydney. Corke             Winifred       David  Brian Doctor (nedical) Malaya Singapore Embarked Sing. Disembarked at Fremantle. See Addendum below Davies George Howard 61 yrs Hong Kong He is shown on the Carolina arrival list with other survivors but  I could not find him on Myrmidon passenger list. He may have remnaioned in US. Welsh (believed to be from Hereforshire/Pembrokeshire). He boarded Ulysses in Hong Kong.  Dawe Joseph M.W.  M.o.I. China HK Hong Kong An address is given c/o M.D. Lymer, Romford Esssex. Unable to find more information on him.  Deighton  (Mrs)  Margaret R. 31 yrs Malaya Sydney Address given in Dunfermeline, Scotland. I believe she was married to Malayan Planter Lawrence Wilfred Deighton. There is a record of them travelling to Singapore from Southampton in 1938. Ellison    (Mrs)  Rose 47 yrs Typisat Australia Sydney Adddress in UK provided as c/o  Mr I Ellison, Leeds, Eng.  No other information found. Ellison    (Miss)    Sheila 17 yrs Typist Sydney Forsyth   Alistair Kyle 34 yrs Dodwell & Co  Hong Kong Sydney After the war was resident in Malaya and profession was shown as Banker. He is described as employed by Dodwell & Co  at time of sinking. He died in 1964 in Tonbridge, Kent. He was married to Frances May Forsyth. Son Michael Alexander (b. circa 1950). He is listed in Loindon Gazzett Dec 1942 as appointed subaltern in RASC. He was Scottish.  Gambling Oliver Clifton 40 yrs Mining Engineer Australia Melbourne Place of birth: Sheffield. Address c/o Mssrs Rip Bits Lts, Hill Street, Sheffield.  Beleved to be instrument makers. They were associated with Padley & Venables at same address in Sheffield.  (Padley & Venables was listed before WW2). Rip Bits was a maker of rock drill bits and pressure gauges and Padley & Venables made mining tools. Gambling     (Mrs)    Mildred 43 yrs Housewife Melbourne Place of birth: Leicester. Shown as Mildred on Myrmidon list. Hills   (Miss) Helen Faber 20 Stenographer Australia/HK Sydney Her parents (Herbert and Edith Hills) lived in Lugard Road Hong Kong  and were interned in Stanley Camp. Helen had gone to Australia  with her mother Edith in 1941 but stayed on in Sydney with an Aunt  when Edith returned to HK in November 1941, as it was safer for her to be in Sydney. After returning to England she joined WAAF. She had two brothers Stuart and Peter. She mnarried RAF Fighter Pilot Ace Lance Amigo Percy Burra-Robinson  after the war. They lived in South Africa. They had two children. Lance had a son from his previous marriage (Kensington - 1940) to Lady Nancy Moira Bowes-Lyon. They divorced in 1950. Lance was awarded DFC in 1944. Hunt Percy Clarke 65 yrs Business Mgr. Melbourne Jacobs   (Mrs) Catherine Ruby 31 yrs Sydney Not seen on Myrmidon List ??? Jacobs  (Miss) Patricia Anne  4 yrs Sydney Jeffery  Mary Norma 20 yrs Bank Clerk Australia Melbourne Jolly    (Mrs) Helen 36 yrs Housewife Australia Sydney Jones  (Miss) Kathleen Hilda 34 Teacher Australia Sydney She was a British national working as a school mistress. Her address was c/o her mother (Hilda)  101, Oakwood Park Road, London Jones  (Miss) Marjorie Lilian 34 School Teacher Australia Sydney British national Jordan     (Mrs) Margaret Daisy Anne  45 yrs (1897) Malaya Melbourne She died aged 74 in Brighton in 1972.  She was married to Brian Jordan. In 1947 she returned to Singapore/Malaya Jordan   (Miss)  Margaret Anne 6 Melbourne Key James Hong Kong Employed by HM Secretary of State for Colonies -  Key   (Mrs) Ester Rosaline 36 Hong Kong Chinese Key   (Miss) Angela Helen Hong Kong Adopted daughter Maas Henry Oscar 57 yrs (1885) Retired Malaya (Penang) Sydney Occupation retired merchant. Address c/o Mrs M. Maas in Dorset. Married to Marjorie Maas. Seems to have been based in Penang. In 1957 he is listed as Chairman of Boustead . Moffat   (Mrs)  Dorys   Winifred 38 yrs  (1904) Housewife Australia Sydney Her husband Edward Hadley Moffat was interned in Shanghai (Lunghwa Camp). He was a banker.  They married at British Consulate in Yokohama in 1940.  They were resident in Japan until October 1941. McAuslan   (Mrs)  Lilian Barnsley 38 yrs (1905) Burma Sydney She was married to Henry Buchanan McAuslan. He was serving in British Army in Burma. After the war the family lived in India. They retired to Shropshire. There is a photo on the front page of the Charleston newspaper "The News & Courier" (14 April 1942) showing Lilian and other survivors.  McAuslan    (Miss) Elizabeth 5 Sydney McAuslan (Miss)  Ailsa 7 Sydney Ailsa was born in Mandalay in 1935 . The family lived in India after the war and Aisla married in Calcutta in April 1955. Her daughter Alison provided additional information for me. McLaren  (Mrs)  Nellie Florence 34 yrs Married to Harold McLaren with HK & China Gas Co. HK and then Bondi, Sydney Sydney She was married to Harold William George McLaren who she met in Exeter. They lived in Ilfracomb where he worked for Ilfracomb Cas Co.  until he got a job with HK & China Gas in 1937. Her daughter Ann was bornm in UK and youngest daughter Sue was born in Hong Kong.  Harold remained in HK and was incarcerated at Stanley Camp. Nellie and daughters were evacuated from HK on Empress of Japan to Australia via Manila in June/July 1940. Nellie and daughters stayed with her parents (Mr & Mrs Criddle) in Bridgewater, Somerset.  After the war family returned to HK and Harold  retired in 1964.   McLaren  (Miss)  Patricia Ann  5 yrs Sydney She was born in UK. Now Ann Russell McLaren  (Miss)  Susan Jenifer 2 yrs Sydney Born in Hong Kong. Now Susan Penn wife of John Penn whose father was Captain Harry Penn CO of No. 1 Coy HKVDC in 1941 McDonald John Ferguson 32 yrs (1910) Journalist.(Associated Australian Press) Australia Sydney Born in NZ. Married to Dorothy Frances Ferguson. Returned to Australia in 1945. Noon.  (Mrs) Annie Katherine  67 Rtd Singapore Sydney Travelling with daughter and grandchild. Noon (Mrs)  Barbara 29 Housewife Singapore Sydney Married to Henry Bromley Noon Chartered Accountant in Federated Malayan States. Noon Timothy Henry 1 Child Singapore Sydney Norton John Eardley 39 HK Hong Kong He was born in Egypt in 1903. He gave an address as 8, Glenoch Road, London, NW3. He may have worked for Censor's Office (not clear what he was doing in Hong Kong). Notman   (Mrs) Annie Eileen 44 (1897) Housewife Kent, UK Hong Kong Married to Herbert George Notman in 1925 (I assume he worked for Vesteys) as she gave an address of Union Cold Storage, part of Vestey Brothers Group who had interests in cold storage, shipping, meat products etc and busiuness in South America. A number of trips were made tob Argentina/Latin America.  Owen  (Mrs) Dorothie Marie Campbell 33 yrs Melbourne No information found - not seen on Myridon passenger list but were on Ulysses list . Owen (Master) Charles Blackburn 6 yrs Melbourne Owen  (Miss) Marie Lennox 5 yrs Melbourne Packard (Mrs)  Maude Rosina  31 yrs  Adelaide, Aus Sydney She was born 11th Jan 1910. She died in 1985. She married Charles Reginald Packard in 1935.  She had two children. Not sure of the whereabouts of  her husbasnd during WW2. I assume 2nd child born after 1942. Packard   (Miss)  Angela Mary 3 yrs Sydney Paynter Bernard  48 yrs Chief Press Censor - Govt official HK HK Hong Kong Chief Press Censor Ponsford Henry Sydney No other information Pugh  (Mrs) Charlotte  86 yrs Sydney She  was the oldest passenger. She had been visiting her daughter Agnes Osborn who lived near Sydney.  Charlotte's photo was shown on front page collage of "The News & Courier" 14th April 1942 looking younger than her years. She was  Welsh.  Reeve  (Mrs) Kathleen Malaya Sydney They boarded ship in Sydney.  They were evacuated from Singapore on the Aorangi  which disembarked passengers at Freemantle. They stayed in Perth before flying to Sydney and joining Ulysses. Reeve  (Miss) Rosemary 2 Sydney Rosemary Fell (nee Reeve) is Secretary of Malaysian Volunteer Group Rowell Thomas Richmond Educational Advisor- Colonial Office.  HK Sydney Rowell  (Mrs)  Edith Mary Wilson Australia Sydney Rowell   (Miss) Mary Patricia 17 Sydney "My mother,Mary Patricia Rowell,had boarded the ship in Austrailia with her parents,her father being Thomas Richmond Rowell (later to be Director of Education in Hong Kongand awarded the CBE in 1950). (Message to PGC from Mr Roger Lewis) Rowell  (Miss)  Judith Anne 11 Sydney She is shown in a photo on the front page of "The News & Courier" 14th April 1942 holding three rescued  kittens from the ship. The cats mother went down with the ship. Russell (Mrs) Isabelle McKenzie 35 yrs  Housewife Singapore Melbourne Scottish. Husband was John William Russell of 45 Orchard Road. Russell  Gordon Robert 9 yrs Child Melbourne Russell   (Miss) Isabelle Lindsay  4 yrs Child Melbourne Smith (Mrs) Doris Anita  Singapore Sydney Smith Barrie 15 Sydney Smith   Norman Lockhart 54 Retired Colonial Secretary Hong Kong Retiring to UK and travelling with his daughter Smith    (Miss)  Rachel Lockhart 21 Cypher Office Hong Kong Engaged to Lt Alec Kennedy who escaped with MTBs from HK Stevenson   (Mrs)    Edith Maud 32 yrs Malaya Sydney Husband George Stevenson Stevenson Hamish Gary Reid  1 yr Malaya Sydney Thomson     (Mrs) Elizabeth 34 yrs KL Malaya Melbourne Thomson John 14 yrs KL Malaya Melbourne Thomson Donald 2 yrs KL Malaya Melbourne Watson Herbert 36 yrs Commercial Traveller Java Singapore Watson  (Mrs) Isobel Campbell Australia Sydney Watson    (Mrs)  Joan 38 yrs Malaya Melbourne Watson Robert Mark  5 Melbourne Whelan  (Mrs) Marjorie 24 yrs Australia Melbourne Address c/o F.R. Whelan 10, Bedford Road, London, W4 Whelan William 4 Melbourne Wickett   (Mrs)   Vera (DoB: 1916) About 26yrs old Malaya Sydney Also known as Vera Wood (stage name). She was an opera singer.  She is shown with her infant son in the front page photo of  "The News & Courier" (14th April 1942) Wickett Peter 6 months Sydney Williams-Mitchell    (Mrs)  Jean Florence  36 yrs  Housewife Australia Sydney She was born 30/3/1906 in NZ. She married Alan Williams-Mitchell in Sept 1936 in UK. They had two children. She died in 1988 aged 82 in Salsbury, Wilts. Williams-Mitchell  Robert Henry 2 yrs Child Sydney Williamson Gladys Louisa 32 yrs Teacher Australia Sydney Gave an address in Suffolk Wilson Janet D.C.  24 Domestic Australia Sydney Gave an address c/o Mrs Wilson in Sterling, Scotland.  Young Denis Packenham 19 (12/3/1923) Student Australia Melbourne Address in UK given as c/o his father The Rev. Harold Packenham Young, Christ Church Vicarage, Crew, Cheshire. He was born in India. Notes Abbey  (Miss) Juliet H.  16 Student New York (Myrmidon) Address on manifest : C/O Mrs WH Abbey, Sedgwick Poark, Horsham, Sussex.  She was a passenger on Myrmidon  but not on Ulysses Brooker Jessie 56 yrs      (1886) Nurse New York (Myrmidon) I believe was on Myrmidon but not Ulysses Horry  (Wing Cdr) Hong Kong Took passage on SS Ulysses from HK but disembarked at Singapore. He was former CO of RAF Station at Kai Tak and was transferred to Sing. Miller    (Mrs) H.W.  Singapore Note that she landed at Auckland (and therefore not on last voyage) Parker (Mrs) Audrey Isabel 46 Were on the Myridon list but not on Ulysses lists Parker (Miss) Lavina Mary 12 Parker (Miss)  Caroline Audrey 6 Pearlman Myer.            51 On Myridon List but not seen on Ulysses list  Crew: Russell  (Captain)  James Appleton Master & Commander Pilbeaner  Lester Member of the crew. He had survived five torpedoe attacks Lacy   (Miss)   Katherine Member of crew. She was a ship's stewardess. She had been torpedoed twice before. Gibson Ship's QM Member of crew and with Captain Russell one oif the last to leave the stricken ship.

Cotton                 Frederick William.          Ship's Doctor

Addendum 2 :  Doctor F W Cotton (1874-1950)

I received an email from Andrew Connor (April 2021) advising me that his godfather Doctor Frederick Cotton was the ship's doctor on SS Ulysses during her departure from Hong Kong  on the eve of battle and her subsequent sinking in the Atlantic. He was sixty-seven years old at the time. Following the sinking he returned to UK  from Halifax on SS Vibran which departed Halifax 12 May 1942 and arrived Liverpool 21 May 1942. There were eleven passengers all seamen (presumably Ulysses crew members). 

Addendum 3 : Dr Winifred Corke (1900-1949)

I was contacted in January 2024 by David Corke who had seen this blog on SS Ulysses and informed me that his mother (Winifred Corke) with David and his brother Brian Corke (1933-2022) had boarded the Ulysses when it docked at Singapore. They disembarked at Fremantle. David's father, a veteran of WW1 managed a rubber plantation in Malaya. He served as a Captain in the Federation of Malay States Volunteer Force (militia). He was taken prisoner in Singaporeand incarcerated first in Singapore and then in Siam (Thailand) where he was forced to work on the notorious Burma Railway. He survived the battle and the brutal imprisonment. David was 10 years old when he boarded the Ulysses and his bother, Brian, was 7 years old. They had just returned (in November 1941) to Kuala Lumpur from boarding school in Perth, Western Australia. David recalls they travelled from Freemantle, W.A. to Singapore on MV Gorgon on 20 November 1941. This was the day after the light cruiser, HMAS Sydney, was sunk by the Gernan surface raider Komoran, disguised as a merchant vessel. Both ships were sunk in the engagement which was 220 nautical miles North North-West of Geraldton, Western Australia and close to the route taken when the Gorgon sailed from Fremantle to Singapore. 

Addendum 4 May 2024: Mrs Charlotte Pugh (1855-)

My thanks to a reader, a relative of passenger Mrs Charlotte Pugh, who sent the press cutting below. Mrs Pugh at 86 was the oldest passenger onboard. She boarded the Ulysses at Sydney having been staying with her daughter and son-in-law (Mr & Mrs A. Osborne) for some three years. Mrs Pugh described to the reporter that she was sleeping at the time the vessel was torpedoed.  She apparently was not wakened and remained asleep in her cabin. The passengers were instructed to take to the lifeboats and abandon ship. Just as the passengers were about to leave the stricken vessel - one of the passengers, Miss May Jefferies (Jeffery ?) realised that Mrs Pugh was not amongst the passengers. She rushed to Mrs Pugh's cabin and found her fast asleep. She hurriedly woke her and informed her what had happened and helped her to the lifeboats. In her rush she took none of her belongngs and even left her spectacles behind.  Mrs Pugh related to the reporter how she owed her life to Miss Jefferies - a twenty-year-old bank clerk from Melbourne. Mrs Pugh related how they were picked up by an American destroyer. The officers and crew of the US Navy ship treating them with the gretest kindness and this kind treatment and generosity was repeated in Charleston and New York by the civil community.  In New York she was accommodated in the Hotel Bryant. Mrs Pugh described how she was able to keep the lifevest she  was wearing when rescued from the Ulysses.

Cutting from Aberdare Leader (1942) courtesy Jenni Davies

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