T. E. PEARCE (aka Tam) [????-????]

Thomas Ernest ("Tam") Pearce was born in 1883. He was a prominent public person in Hong Kong. A member of LEGCO. Chairman of Dairy Farm and Hutchison. He was a Director of Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation and Secretary of the HK Jockey Club. He served as a Private in the Hughes Group of HKVDC and took part in the defence of the HKE North Point Power Station on 18t/19th Dec 1941. On 19th Decc during an attempted extrication towards Causeway Bay he was killed during skirmishing around an abandoined bus near slipways west of the power station. He was shot in the head. The skirmish is sometimes referred to as the Battle of the Bus.  His wife Evelyn (Eva) Maria Leitch (DoB 4/1/1889) was interned at Stanley Camp. His two sons (John and Alec) served as officers in the Royal Artillery in Hong Kong after having been given wartimne commissions. John Pearce escaped from POW CAmp and made his way to Free China. Philip Cracknell