Georges Joseph HOFER (aka Georges Joseph Charles Hofer d'Hauv) [1886-1956]

Georges Joseph Hofer was living in Shanghai with Swiss nationality at the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in the summer of 1937. Later that year he was evacuated with his wife and a number of fellow nationals to Hong Kong, where he claims to have worked as a masseur. 'Claims' is the operative word: Hofer was an elaborate and skilled fantasist (who might have been born eight years later than the 'official' date given).

How much of his voluminous account of fighting with the French army in WWI is fantasy is unknown, but his claim - written in a lively style with much circumstantial detail - to have been tortured by the Japanese for refusal to become a spy is undoubtedly false, as the Swiss Consul Harry Keller explained that the hospitalisation in November 1944 that Hofer put down to the effects of his ordeal was in fact necessitated by his inability to feed himself properly in spite of frequent loans from the Swiss Relief Fund. Hofer was partly motivated by financial considerations - he was claiming compensation of HK$100,000- but it seems that his main inspiration was the love of historical invention, as there was no obvious material reason for the claim he made in Switzerland in 1953-1954 that he had escaped from Hong Kong disguised as a Chinese and gone on to fight under Major-General Francis Festing in Burma. 

In between he'd worked as a civilian for the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (May 1946 to September 1947) and carried out his duties 'very satisfactorily' until his post was abolished to save money. He and his wife soon fell on hard times and Keller arranged a support fund with contributions from Swiss businesses, partly it seems so that their upkeep was a charge on the broader community, not just those they were approaching for loans. In September 1949 the Swiss paid for them to leave Hong Kong.

Sources:

Hofer's files in the Swiss Federal Archives (Bern) e.g. in Dossier E2001D#1968/154#1358*

http://onlinearchives.ethz.ch/detail.aspx?guid=afdc0c89a3cb46219a09a5a95... (German)