LOCAL FORCES AND CIVIL DEFENCE SERVICES
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renamed the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps and in 1917 the Hong Kong Defence Corps. In 1920 the title was again changed to the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. The Corps was mobilized, about 1,400 strong, to meet the Japanese attack on the Colony on 8th December 1941 and fought with the regular forces against overwhelming odds until ordered to surrender on 25th December 1941. In 1956 their action was vividly recalled when part of the old Colours of the Corps, which had been buried in December 1941 to avoid capture by the Japanese, was discovered by workmen excavating a building site on Garden Road. The officers who had hidden the colours had died in captivity, leaving no record of where the Colours might be found. The remnants of the old Colours were paraded on the Annual Review of the Defence Force in March 1958 and were afterwards laid up in St John's Cathedral. Decorations were conferred upon fifteen members of the Corps for their gallantry in battle and for later escapes from Japanese prison-camps in Hong Kong, and eighteen were mentioned in despatches.
After the war the Corps was reconstituted on 1st March 1949 as the Hong Kong Defence Force. Two years later, His late Majesty King George VI granted the title 'Royal', and in March 1957, Her Majesty the Queen awarded the Battle Honour Hong Kong' to the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force. This Honour is now emblazoned on the Regimental Colour and with the new title recognizes the part played by the Force's forerunner, the Volunteer Defence Corps, in 1941.
The Essential Services Corps proper consists of a number of units, each responsible for maintaining an essential service such as the supply of electricity, water, communications, etc. Each unit is principally staffed by persons already employed in the service but is reinforced as necessary by others. Since in an emergency most members would continue to perform duties in which they are already expert, the Corps requires little extra training. Membership dropped after the abandonment of compul- sory service and further recruitment is required.
The Auxiliary Medical Service is organized to provide first aid and hospital treatment for the population of the Colony in an emergency. It is built around the Medical and Health Depart- ment, the St John Ambulance Brigade and other members of