Edgar Martin LAUFER [1915-2010] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Edgar Martin LAUFER [1915-2010]

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Submitted by brian edgar on Sun, 2014-06-01 17:12
Names
Given: 
Edgar Martin
Family: 
Laufer
Sex: 
Male
Status: 
Deceased
Birth
Date: 
c.1915-01-01 (Month, Day are approximate)
Death
Date: 
2010-04-19

Edgar Laufer was a chemist by training who fled to Hong Kong when the Japanese attacked southern China in 1938. He was employed by China Light and Power.

He joined the Volunteers but was quickly transferred by his manager to the Essential Sevices Corps in which he served during the hostilities.

He was not interned in January 1942 presumably because he was needed to help restore Hong Kong's electricity supply.

Working with Dr. Selwyn-Clarke, he smuggled vitamins in toothpaste tubes into Shamshuipo and Argyle Street POW Camps, and managed to obtain a complete list of Volunteers in these camps.

He eventually escaped to Macao, where he lived by giving maths lectures and borrowing from the British Consul, John Reeves. After the war, he returned to work for CLP, and paid off his debts to the Macao Consulate.

He retired to Dorset.

Sources:

Interview with Lauffer 16-03-2007, held at the Hong Kong Heritage Project

Date of Death: http://announcements.thetimes.co.uk/obituaries/timesonline-uk/obituary-p...

Tags: 
uninterned
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Comments

Submitted by Michael Ogden on Sat, 2017-01-28 19:55.
I came to know Edgar Lauder about 1979 as he was a customer at The Chartered Bank in HK Main Office in Des Voeux Road, where I was the Current Accounts Manager. He and his wife, Beryl, retired about 1986 and bought a house in Ferndown in Dorset, where I also had a house and introduced him to my parents who lived in the next village, West Moors. Edgar was a very modest man, as I never learnt anything about the above except that he escaped to Macao on a junk, which must have been pretty fraught anyway. He attended my wedding to my wife, Alison in 1996.

Submitted by brian edgar on Sat, 2017-01-28 20:01.

Thanks for those memories, Michael. I've recently come across more information shwoing how active he was in 'legal' and 'illegal' relief work during the occupation. 

 

Submitted by David on Tue, 2017-01-31 10:58.

He's mentioned in the 1941 Jurors List:

c   Laufer, Edgar Martin Junior Chemist, China Light & Power Co., Ld. 99B Waterloo Road, Kowloon.

Submitted by Michael Ogden on Sun, 2019-06-30 20:23.
A very interesting story and take of survival. https://hongkongrefuge.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/edgar-laufer/