Hazel HARDY (née O'SULLIVAN, aka The Angel of Hong Kong) [????-????]

Hazel Hardy was a Hong Kong civil servant in the period leading up to the Japanese attack. She was not interned after the surrender because she had Irish papers.

Her fiance before the war was Sergeant R. J. Hardy (R.A.F.), who became a POW in Shamshuipo. He sent her letters through Chinese labourers when he was part of a party forced to work on the extension of Kai Tak airport. She sent in replies by the same route and also smuggled in medicines and food - hence the nickname.

She married Sergeant Hardy soon after the arrival of Admiral Harcourt's fleet on August 30, 1945. He was given special permission to leave his hospital bed in Kowloon for the wedding - he was being treated for the effects of the deprivation he suffered in Stanley and Canton Prisons where he was sent as a result of his resistance work in Shamshuipo.

The couple were also given special permission to leave together on the hospital ship Oxfordshire. They were eventually bound for England.

She was probably the sister of Teresa Young.

Source:

The Courier-Mail (Brisbane), 21 September 1945, 1