Percy Selbourne SELWYN-CLARKE (aka BAAG No. 13 / Septic / Scamp / Nobby / Sir Percy) [1893-1976]

Percy Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke - as he became after changing his birth name by deed poll - arrived in Hong Kong as Medical Director in 1938. After the Japanese victory he was not sent to Stanley but allowed to continue his work for the benefit of all communities. As well as his official duties, he organised the purchase of drugs, supplementary foodstuffs, and medical equipment, and arranged for these items to be smuggled into Stanley, Shamshuipo and other camps and hospitals.

He was arrested at the St. Paul’s (‘the French’) Hospital, where he'd been interned for most of the war, on May 2, 1943, on suspicion of being the head of the British spy organisation in Hong Kong (in fact his activities, although regarded as illegal by the Japanese, were purely humanitarian). He was brutally questioned at the Supreme Court Building for 10 months but revealed nothing. He was moved to Stanley Prison under sentence of death, but was reprieved, and in December, 1944 released to join his wife (Hilda) and daughter (Mary) at Ma Tau-wai Camp in Kowloon.

He resumed work as Hong Kong’s M. O. in July 1946. He became a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) in 1945 and a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) in 1951. In the spring of 1947 he was appointed Governor of the Seychelles.