70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

The first birth in Stanley Camp: Elizabeth Ann to Mrs. M.  E. Joffe.

And what's probably the first wedding: Amy Matilda May Eliza Halliday, a nursing sister with the Hong Kong Medical Department, marries Alexander McGregor Mitchell, a Prison Officer. The ceremony was conducted by Alaric Rose, formerly the Chaplain-in-Charge of St John's Cathedral, and the witnesses were W. H. P. ('Crumb') Chattey, Ivy Morgan and Dr. Sterling Tomlinson.

The Hammonds and Reitons arrive in Stanley, putting paid to the rumour that all the China Peniel Mission missionaries have been killed.

At a meeting of the Temporary Committee, Franklin Gimson states that a list of prisoners of war in Kowloon camps is available. This list, apparently provided by the Japanese, turns out to be incomplete and inaccurate.

A meeting of the British and American Protestant clergy is held and a committee elected. Frank Short becomes chairman, and Dr. Shoop, an American missionary, his deputy. Harry Wittenbach and Bill Ream are joint treasurers and there are six other members.

Phyllis Harrop is preparing her escape from Hong Kong. On a trip along Connaught Rd. to the Wing Lok wharf, where she hopes to find out how to get a ferry passage to Macao, she sees some distressing sights:

...I saw a Chinaman being beaten up with a heavy bamboo pole by a couple of Jap sentries. Past the harbour office I saw an old woman being dragged along by her hair. Another younger woman I saw pushed down into a pool of water and sat upon. Further down an old man was also being used as a seat.

When we reached Wing Lok wharf two men were thrown into the harbour, and another being beaten was screaming his head off. He soon followed the other two into the water. I felt sick with it all, so helpless.

Sources:

Birth: China Mail, September 15, 1945, page 3 (the daughter's initials are given as E. A. by this source but as E.N. by the Stanley Roll.)

Wedding: Greg Leck, Captives of Empire, 2006, 62; Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 2008, Additional Appendix 1

Hammonds: Robert Hammond, Bondservants of the Japanese, 1957 (originally 1942), 55

Gimson: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 52

Protestants: Bill Ream, Too Hot For Comfort, 1998, 52

Phyllis Harrop, Hong Kong Incident, 1944, 130-131

Note: a photo of Ms. Joffe taken soon after liberation can be seen at:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/26155499?searchTerm=&searchLimits=l-publictag=Stanley+internment+camp