70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Shows diary entries from seventy-one years ago, using today's date in Hong Kong as the starting point. To see pages from earlier dates (they go back to 1 Dec 1941), choose the date below and click the 'Apply' button.

  • 26 Jun 1944, Barbara Anslow's diary

    Submitted by Barbara Anslow on Mon, 2012-04-09 15:42
    Book / Document: 
    Barbara Anslow's diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Mon, 26 Jun 1944

    C. H. Goodwin (HK Police) died.

    A typed Red Cross message dated 18th March 1943 arrived from Aunt Lily in Gillingham, Kent, stamped la Croix Rouge, Geneve, with a Japanese chop on it, saying

    'Hope you and girl are well... Having lovely spring weather.  All well.  Love'.

    ((At some unrecorded time,  another, plain typed postcard dated 28.1.44 and stamped by British Censor arrived, saying:

    'All well, Home and Rhodesia.  Hope you and girls are too.  Having mild winter, bulbs up, trees sprouting.  All send our love, Lilian.'

    The reference to Rhodesia is re Aunt Bess and family, and Aunt Hilda and family, who lived there.))

     

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  • 26 Jun 1944, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

    Submitted by brian edgar on Fri, 2012-06-15 23:58
    Book / Document: 
    Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Mon, 26 Jun 1944

    Charles Henry Goodwin of the Hong Kong Police dies today, aged 44. He was one of a number of policemen who married their Chinese girlfriends in a mass ceremony at St. John's Cathedral on Boxing day 1941. His wife, formerly Kwong Yuet of Kowloon, was accepted into Rosary Hill Red Cross Home.

    George Wright-Nooth's diary entry describing the kitchen system in 1944 mentions Goodwin:

    Sergeants Goldie and Goodwin are the chief cooks for our quarters...Goldie is the better of the two. However, Goodwin always produces his meals on time.

    Sources:

    http://www.qaranc.co.uk/bmh_bowen_road_hong_kong.php

    George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 128

  • 26 Jun 1944, R. E. Jones Wartime diary

    Submitted by Admin on Wed, 2014-05-21 15:59
    Book / Document: 
    R. E. Jones Wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Mon, 26 Jun 1944

    Overcast & showery all day.

    Ground rice & chopped wood.

    Some canteen gear arrived but no veg for tomorrow, sprats only.

    No paper today. Chinese paper arrived & is in the course of translation.

    With Steve pm.

    Air-raid warning 9pm, for practice it seems.

    Rocket release gear captured at Cherbourg. It is suggested by Stockholm report that Japs must retire west if Saipan is captured as their position strategically would be untenable. If such is the case, and the Japs do retire west, clear of the Phillipines & Formosa as suggested, then we can look forward to early release.

    Much talk & conjecture about what we will do when release does come, how we will appreciate the small things of life, hot water, soap, clean clothing, a good bed & privacy, things that used to seem of no account. We will look back on these days with mixed feelings, some good, some bad. Food, accommodation & medical treatment will be remembered as bad, & the general life, books, lectures, concerts, talks & companionship as good. Things generally could be much worse.

    I look forward to the time when my forced separation from my wife & baby is at an end & my sense of appreciation of the amenities of life is in full swing. Plain & plenty, cleanliness & comfort will = Happiness.

  • 26 Jun 1944, Eric MacNider's wartime diary

    Submitted by Admin on Tue, 2014-06-24 20:43
    Book / Document: 
    Eric MacNider's wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Mon, 26 Jun 1944

    Death – S–I. Charles Henry Goodwin (44), H.K.P.

    B.O.


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