Les FISHER [1908-1998]
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A. L. Fisher came to Hong Kong in 1932 as Assistant Engineer in the Telephone Company. He married Kathleen Parsons while on home leave in 1938 and in November of that year the couple settled in Hong Kong. Their daughter Angela was born on January 11, 1940.
In the period before the war the employees of the Hong Kong Telephone Company were incorporated into Army Signals and became the Fortress Signals Company. Fisher held the rank of sergeant.
He worked in various locations during the hostilities, at one point taking part in the 'siege' of Repulse Bay Hotel, volunteering alongside Benny Proulx to fetch machine gun ammunition from a deserted pillbox nearby.
After the surrender he was held in Shamshuipo POW Camp where he spent the rest of the war. He was chosen to be one of the leaders in the planned resistance if there was any Japanese attempt to stage a general massacre of the POWs.
He continued to work for the Telephone Company after the war before retiring to Shropshire in 1954. He eventually moved to Devon, from where he published a book of war-time reminiscences.
Source:
Les Fisher, I Will Remember, 1997, passim
Gomes Newsletter, 1 February, 1999.
