Hong Kong 1951 | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Hong Kong 1951

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Submitted by fattiesleg on Fri, 2018-02-02 20:08

Dear All,

I'm hoping someone can advise. I am a volunteer for Marie Curie in Fife, Scotland and one of of my clients (my apologies, I'm unable to mention his name) often talks about a time when he was doing his National Service in the Far East and he travelled from Singapore on a British Navy Aircraft Carrier that was to be decommissioned in Hong Kong; this occurred in 1951 and he says he was onboard for approx 1 week to 10 days. He was one of a number of Gunnery Technicians in the British Army who were travelling to Hong Kong to teach military personnel that were to subsequently travel onto the Korean conflict.
Please advise if you are able to provide any details of the British Navy vessel and if there are any photographs of that period.
Many thanks for any help you might able to provide.
Regards,
Tim Collier

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Submitted by David on Mon, 2018-02-05 17:50.

Hi Tim,

I don't know which Aircraft Carrier that was, but we do have lots of photos of 1950s Hong Kong: https://gwulo.com/image?field_gallery_tid=20&items_per_page=All

Here are some of the military sites he might remember: https://gwulo.com/node/33573

And a soldier's memories of 1950s Hong Kong: https://gwulo.com/royal-army-service-corps-hong-kong

I hope they bring back some happy memories. Let us know if he'd like more info about anything in particular.

Regards, David

Submitted by Paul Christensen on Thu, 2018-02-08 19:06.

It seems to me that the aircraft carrier was likely HMS Unicorn which was involved in ferrying British forces and aircraft between Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan & Korea at that time, although it wasn't decommissioned in HK. The Wikipedia page has more details and photos.