In this week's newsletter, guest author Celia Hicks remembers her childhood years in Hong Kong. Celia has provided several family photos, and I've added in extra photos from the Gwulo website where they match the story.
I arrived in Hong Kong in 1947 as a six-year old with my mother Winifred Alice Collins and older sister Sheila on the troop ship Dunera to join my Dad who had been posted to HK by the Admiralty after the Japanese surrender. He had travelled out via Malta in 1946 and must have seen the devastation caused to the island by German bombing raids. Malta had been crucial in being a supply and repair location for the Allied war efforts. It has been said that Malta received more bombs than London suffered in the blitz. It survived, which is why its Government was presented with the George Cross by King George VI.
My father, George C. S. Collins, had travelled out on the aircraft carrier Ocean to become the Superintendent of Gyro Compasses for the Far East, based at the HK Dockyard. At that time, we had a large Navy as did the Americans.
HMS Ocean, by Celia Hicks
On arrival he joined other men at The Cecil Hotel where rats visited the rooms at night! Also <Read more ...>
