TNAG-2552-FCO40-3727-Commonwealth-War-Graves-Commission-in-Hong-Kong-1992 — Page 6

BRIEF FOR HE THE RT HON MR C PATTEN PC, GOVERNOR AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF DESIGNATE, HONG KONG

COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION: HONG KONG

THE COMMITMENT

1. 6,403 Commonwealth war dead (1,120 1914-18, 5,283 1939-45) are commemorated in Hong Kong, chiefly in Sai Wan War Cemetery and Stanley Military Cemetery. There are 2,442 Commonwealth burials, 621 of them unidentified, and 81 identified war burials of other nationalities. 4,582 Commonwealth war dead are commemorated on three memorials including the Sai Wan (China) Memorial which commemorates Commonwealth servicemen from the United Kingdom and undivided India whose graves in China could not be maintained in situ.

2.

A statistical table is attached.

HISTORICAL NOTE

3. 1914-18 War. The graves are mostly of soldiers who died from wounds and epidemics in Hong Kong and Kowloon Military Hospitals.

4. 1939-45 War. The graves are mainly those of servicemen who died in the defence of and subsequent withdrawal from the Colony in 1941. Those who died during these operations or as prisoners of war afterwards are, for the most part, buried in Sai Wan War Cemetery, where there is also a memorial to those who have no known grave. Stanley Military Cemetery, formerly the garrison cemetery, which had not been used for more than 70 years when it was reopened for burials during the Japanese occupation, contains the graves of both prisoners of war and others killed during the 1941 occupation who were originally buried in civil cemeteries or in isolated graves in the surrounding countryside. Of the 103 graves shown on the statistical table as "non-World War Graves" (a general term used to describe graves other than wartime burials of Commonwealth servicemen) the majority are the graves of civilians who died as volunteers or while collecting military intelligence in enemy territory.

5. The Hong Kong Memorial. At the main entrance to the Botanic Gardens, Victoria, there is a granite 'pailau' or arch ('The Hong Kong Memorial' in the Commission's records)

ERIAAB