Sheridan's diary of the hostilities

Staff-Sergeant Patrick John Sheridan was a Royal Army Service Corps Master Baker who was stationed in Hong Kong from 1937 (with a break when he volunteered for a period in Shanghai). He served during the December hostilities but was not sent to Shamshuipo after the surrender; instead he was allowed to carry on baking for the hospitals. A strange set of circumstances enabled him to make a courageous escape, for which he was awarded the Military Medal.

His daughters, Helen Dodd and her sisters, have very kindly made available his post-war Hong Kong Memoir to Gwulo. We shall be publishing 1) his diary of the hostilities in full, and 2) extracts from later sections of the Memoir that show how he stayed out of Shamshuipo and gradually devised and executed his escape plan.

Emphasis in bold is as in the original typescript, ((italicised notes in brackets)) have been added by Gwulo.

The section of the Memoir that deals with the lead- up to war describes the certain knowledge of the soldiers in Hong Kong that the Japanese were going to attack and ends with these words:

We also know that any attack on Hong Kong is a foregone conclusion. We can only hold out for a short time. There are no reliefs nor any reinforcements available.