Raymond / Wah-chaan MOK (aka 莫華燦) [1920-2012]

I had a few long chats with Dr. Mok in Hong Kong in June 2010 about his experience in the BAAG.  He was a good friend of the family, our Family Doctor when we were small, and Godfather of my younger brother.

Just want to add the following: 

Mok had had some experience already as a Ward Clerk before the War while studying at HKU.  At the BAAG, he was referred to as 'Mok Yee-goon' (Medical Officer) and not 'Mok Yee-sung' (Medical Doctor).

The person whom he met while having a meal at Wai Chow after his escape, who recruited him into the BAAG, was my father, Paul Tsui, then Secretary of AHQ, playing key roles in the Filed Intelligence Group.  They were acquanted with one another having both entered HKU in 1938.

Raymond Mok was not seconded to the Chinese Nationalist Army by the BAAG.  He was working under Major Patrick Van de Linde MD, as well as Olser Thomas (later also Dr. who entered HKU in 1938 as well).  Their team worked at various Forward Medical Outposts.  At one time or another, their posts served exclusively the local Chinese military; although they also secretly treated the Communisst Guerrillas in the middle of the night, including their Commander Tsang Sang.  It was all part of the BAAG Medical Services, that won very good will from the local Chinese Garrison & the Red Guerrillas.  The Outposts also served as transition stations for BAAG Runners enroute from Hong Kong to Wai Chow.  One post was at Tam Uk where they used a temple as the Medical Post.  They had to evacuate quickly at moment's notice every time the Japanese raided their areas at the front, reestablishing at Lam Tong, Hoyi, Hoyuan, Hing Ning, ...  However, their unit was always at the forefront. Once, they were warned by the local Garrison to sleep with their boots on; and indeed, the Japanese invaded that very night.

After the War, Raymond Mok became a GP as well as a local philantropist, an active member of the Lok Sin Tong & other benevolent associations.

Thank you both for this entry on my father, and I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Lawrence. I have heard a lot over the years about your father Paul Tsui.

I have just a couple of corrections to the first entry:

My father was born on 30 November 1920

He was awarded the MBE, rather than the OBE, in 1987 for his services to the Auxiliary Medical Service, HK.

He was also a Member of the Order of St. John, and a Justice of the Peace.

To flesh out my father's biography, and to link this entry with several others in Gwulo, I should add that he was born into the Mok family, who were the compradores for Butterfield and Swire.

My father grew up at 73 Waterloo Road, and admitted to study Medicine at the University of Hong Kong in 1938. His studies were interrupted by the war, and he joined the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, seeing action on HK Island. What happened next is described in the entries above.

After the war, my father completed his medical studies at the Welsh National School of Medicine, Cardiff. He met my mother, Gladys Hutchinson, in Cardiff. My mother was also from Hong Kong, and was on a scholarship to complete her studies at the University of Wales, Cardiff. She is the daughter of Tom Hutchinson, whose war diary starts on this page. My parents were married in HK in 1951.

On his return to HK, my father worked at Lai Chee Kok Hospital, and then went into private practice as a family doctor in Mongkok. He retired from this practice in his mid 70s.

My father's memories about his war experiences have been made available as an oral history recording by the Imperial War Museum.

A photo of Raymond Mok, and Osler Thomas, taken in HK in 2005:

Hi Barbara,

Good to connect.  I'm trying to upload a BAAG Reunion photo circa 1952 at our home, Dunrose, Castle Peak, with Dr Mok and Gladys in it.  I will try to upload another photo given to me by Dr. Patrick Van de Linde showing his BAAG medical unit during the War in 1944.  I believe young Raymond Mok was in that photo.

I believe Raymond Mok was also an active Director of Lok Sin Tong benevolent association which had a special focus on the Kowloon Walled City neighbourhood. 

Hi Lawrence

I would love to see any photos from the 40s and 50s. If it helps to identify my father in early photos, here is one of him taken at HKU, c. 1940:

Yes, my father was a director of the Kowloon Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society, and Chairman. I know his work centred on Kowloon City, which could well have focussed on the Walled City.

He was also involved with the Shamshuipo Kaifong Welfare Advancement Association, as medical officer in the evening clinic in the 1950s, and also served on the Executive Committee as Vice Chairman, and President.

He served as director and vice-chairman of Pok Oi Hospital, Yuen Long, in the setting up of a new hospital in the New Territories.

He was Principal Surgeon for the St. John's Ambulance Brigade, and Deputy Commissioner for Kowloon and the New Territories for the Auxiliary Medical Service.

At Laichikok Hospital, he was Medical Officer-in-Charge. Here is a photo of my father leading the then Governor Alexander Grantham into the hospital for a tour, in 1952:

Lawrence - I thought you would like to see this testimonial from your father:

It was of great value to my father, and still sits in its original envelope.

Barbara

Thank you Barbara for Paul Tsui's memo regarding Dr. Mok.  Of course, the signature touches me in a special way.  In his old files, there were quite a few of these regarding various former BAAG members as well as Chinese military officers who had helped the BAAG, particularly those at the Forwarbd Area around Wai Chow AHQ.  I remember reading one about Preston Wong and another about Ma Chun-kwai who were mentioned in separate articles of Gwulo.com.  In 2010, I interviewed the elderly LO Shue-tsang who was the cook cum dresser of the medical team with Dr. Mok.  How I wish I have developed an interest in the BAAG earlier when father is still around.  Discovering the many people known to me in my boyhood days and their connections with the BAAG war effort was fascinating. Ordinary people became heroes; heroes reverted to ordinary people again.  What about the war widows & orphans... I'm sure many of them had found care & attention at Dr. Mok's clinic.