Ernest W L MARTIN [1888-????] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Ernest W L MARTIN [1888-????]

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Submitted by Admin on Thu, 2012-05-31 22:10
Names
Given: 
Ernest W L
Family: 
Martin
Sex: 
Male
Status: 
Deceased
Birth
Date: 
1888-09-08

Details from John Black's list, which gives the occupation of Rev. Martin in 1941 as "School Principal". The school was St Stephen's College in Stanley, which formed part of the Stanley Civilian Internment Camp where Rev. Martin was interned during the Japanese occupation.

Tags: 
WW2: Interned at Stanley Camp
Connections: 
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Comments

Submitted by annpake on Thu, 2018-04-05 22:38.

He was the ninth  of the eleven children of Canon  Henry Martin Vicar of Stockton on Tees County Durham and Mary. In the 1911 census he was recorded as 22 student (law) single  living at home at the 21 roomed  Vicarage in Stockton on Tees with parents and siblings. His full name is recorded on the census. Hie was born in 1888 in Stockton on Tees (Civil Registration Births)  In 1934 a passenger list shows he was travelling from Mombassa to Southampton with his wife and he  is the vicar at Earls Colne Essex UK.

Andrews Newspaper Card December 1941 reports the deaths of Ernest W L Martin and his wife ("killed in Hong Kong ")   and refers to him as Warden of St. John's College Hong Kong and  (????)

A 1952 passenger list Hong Kong to Tilbury Essex records him as 63 missionary and The Vicarage Upland Essex as his destination and England as his intended place of permanent residence.. A 1956 passenger list gives his date of birth as 8 September 1888 missionary single en route for a 7 week stay in Hong Kong. No age shown. A  British Airways London to New York  1961 Passenger List shows him  as Canon Ernest W L Martin permanent residence St John's College Hong Kong.

1977 London Gazette awarded  M.B.E. (Ancestry Tree) I cannot find any record of it 1977

Submitted by Tideswell27 on Mon, 2021-06-28 10:53.

He was indeed married to Kathleen Stewart. She was the young lady, (aged 11 at the time), who saved the lives of her elder sister and baby brother from "insurgents" who murdered their parents at their Mission Station in Fujian Province, China, in 1895.

In addition to murdering the parents, these brutes also murdered the housemaid and Kathleen's sister. The baby brother, aged 3 yrs at the time, was Evan Stewart who went on to command No. 3 Company (Machine Gun) of the HKVDC during the 1941 Battle for Hong Kong. His Company fought with great distinction during the battle, particularly at the Wong Nai Chong Gap, and Evan was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his leadership and gallantry. 

He commanded the HKVDC (by then the Royal HK Defence Force) detachment at the Coronation of H.M. Queen Elizabeth 11 in London in 1953 and was appointed O.B.E.

Evan Stewart was a schoolteacher (later Headmaster) of St. Paul's College in Hong Kong. He actually took over from his elder brother Arthur as Head.