[ { "id": 207400, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 168, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "160\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nside used gas in our short campaign. In a later section I shall refer in more detail to the casualties. I have noted earlier that Shackleton's war-time command in the hospital was splendid. As in all beaten armies there were some less stout-hearted soldiers; some of these, uninjured, sought shelter in the hospital in the last stages of hostilities, but Shackleton overcame this hazard effectively as he did the many others that arose. He was never a man tolerant of weakness.\n\nThe nursing service was first-rate, led by the Matron, Miss E. M. B. Dyson (the Q.A.'s did not have service rank at that time), and the wounded enjoyed a splendid standard of care right up to the end when the hospital was practically in the front line. The members of the R.A.M.C., R.A.D.C., and attached R.E. stuck to their jobs manfully. The Chinese drivers of ambulance and other cars disappeared into the civilian population as our defeat came nearer, and none should blame them.\n\nIn the hospital, we heard Japanese shells fired from the mainland pass overhead and watched them burst on houses on the Peak. We saw boats bringing Japanese troops from Kowloon in broad daylight to land at North Point. They passed unopposed across the harbour, for apparently our guns could not be brought to bear on them while our defences in the North Point area had been silenced. I saw the harbour crossings made under flags of truce by Japanese officers carrying demands for the surrender of the Colony. These were rejected. In the last stages, we watched the Japanese shelling of Magazine Gap just above the hospital, and we had to keep under cover when moving about the hospital to avoid mortar and small arms fire. It is, however, one of my treasured memories to recall the reaction of Miss G. Colthorpe, one of the Reserve Q.A. sisters, to the surrender of the Colony. She would have hanged the Governor and the General Officer Commanding on the spot. The urgency of the surrender was soon only too evident, for we saw long columns of Japanese troops pass along Bowen Road immediately below the hospital, and the front line could not have been more than four hundred yards or so from the hospital at the time of our capitulation. I believe that it was the fact that we were not overrun in battle that saved patients and staff from the rape and murder which disfigured the campaign in Stanley, Happy Valley, and elsewhere.\n\nEarlier in this account, I said that the topography of the Colony left our troops little or no room for manoeuvre in defence. The", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207498, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 266, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "258\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nS.M.O. Sham Shui Po and Crawford would be in medical charge in the officers' camp. I asked Swyer to send us five members of the R.A.M.C. including one sanitary assistant. The day before I had received a letter from Miss Dyson, our Matron from Stanley Camp who wanted her sisters with her there to rejoin us and this gave us pleasure.\n\nDuring one of my absences from the hospital an incident had occurred over a flag. Someone had hoisted the Union flag on the hospital flag staff and Japanese troops with machine guns surrounded the hospital and for safety's sake we stopped all expeditions from the hospital for the time being. Saito had been observed by our people leaving the hospital with some trucks apparently filled with papers and documents and he had a drawn sword in his hand. On 20 August the Japanese again mounted an armed guard early in the afternoon. In the morning I had been told by Saito and Nomura that the Japanese were still in control and they arranged for Takami the supplies warrant officer to deal with us over food. I pressed him especially for milk and certain other urgently needed foods for medical purposes and required Saito to return to us all the records he had removed. He asked about the numbers we had in the hospital, a foolish but typical request because he must have known all about these already. Nomura told me that the gendarmerie must have been responsible for surrounding the hospital on the day before and we thought it wise not to fly the Union flag for a time. Colonel Field, as the senior officer in command of British troops visited us, and said he would send any food that he could and he approved of our action over the flag incident. He also agreed that following a request from Saito we should not make any large scale moves before he had seen Tokunaga. Saito asked me to give medical and other help to the Indian camp. I found this a queer request indicating a concern of which I had had no great evidence before and of course we were already doing all we could to help. Nomura and another Japanese, Sekiguchi, were busy on plans of our cemeteries and some of our people who had relatives in Stanley left to visit them.\n\nWe exchanged our older men and those who were crippled with patients from Sham Shui Po who needed active treatment, and then a further 14 people who had been in Japanese prisons were admitted including Major Boxer who was an old friend of ours from the early days. Half of the fourteen were civilians. Colonel Tokunaga", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207501, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 269, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n261\n\nI was straban while Ashton Rose was preparing a medical report on Sham Shui Po. At this time we were being asked by the British Military Administration to submit lists of our kit which had been taken by the Japanese but I imagine that this only added to the papers with which they had to deal at that time. The Colonial Secretary was installed in the French Mission at Battery Path and heads of government departments followed shortly afterwards. Commander Craven and Major Boxer left us for staff duties in Hong Kong and I arranged for two barbers to come and stay for a few days. Six of our Q.A. sisters arrived and another six came late at night accompanied by very necessary male escorts from Stanley. We were delighted to see them and put them all up and fed them but it was early morning before I got to bed.\n\nOn 27 August Saito came back and I pressed him again for our medical records and he excused himself by saying he had been so busy. The Indian hospital had 259 patients and 45 staff and I arranged an X-ray session for Indian patients including a number suffering from tuberculosis. Selwyn-Clarke sent us a gift of brandy and cigarettes, showing that though he did not use these comforts himself he would not deny them to others. Miss Dyson now back in her rightful position as Matron set about getting overalls for her sisters, a splendid boost to the morale not only of these ladies but of the patients and staff as well. Madame Lebon made these and our army promised payment.\n\n1\n\nWe finally closed our compradore's shop and agreed a business settlement with the compradore on the basis of him taking out cash plus goods to the total of $8831.06 yen. We had an excellent concert provided by Sham Shui Po, and some of the Hong Kong Volunteers, particularly those of mixed race, were slightly built and made up very attractively as girls. Members of the Indian camp and the Internee Camp at Ma Tau Wei attended and as usual in these days I was very late to bed. We found it necessary to control visiting hours in the hospital because of the very large numbers of people we had roaming about.\n\nOn 28 August we got smoke flares from our people for touching off by day to guide our aircraft when they were dropping supplies and the Japanese also sent in smoke cylinders for a like purpose. They also sent in 3 bottles of whisky, 4 of peppermint for the dispensary, 8 of brandy, 50 of port, 6 of gin and 20 of sherry. I at once arranged a general issue of 2 ounces of port per head, a meagre ration which I thought was wise at the time.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207503, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 271, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n263\n\nhad taken over the civil administration for the time being. The Admiral cheered us all up by saying that his hospital ship could take 600 patients and he had asked for another hospital ship as well. A Canadian warship, the Prince Rupert, took some Canadians and all our sisters off to supper in the ship. I worked up to 2.30 a.m. preparing lists for the use of our Military Headquarters in Sham Shui Po and also the details of our hospital patients awaiting evacuation.\n\nOn 31 August a naval doctor arrived as a liaison officer and I called on Surgeon-Captain Willoughby the P.M.O. in the hospital ship Oxfordshire. Some tough-looking marines commandeered transport and we transferred 101 patients to the hospital ship at once. At this time my diary records that we had ample food but I was dead tired and the P.M.O. very kindly asked me to stay in the Oxfordshire as he seemed to think I needed a rest. This was most considerate of him but there was still much to be done. Willoughby wanted the Q.A. sisters to sail also in the Oxfordshire with the patients, but Miss Dyson objected strongly and rightly won her point. The rest of the patients embarked in the hospital ship also and we provided case notes for all such patients. A Group-Captain R.A.F. came to the hospital to take it over for R.A.F. use, but our army sisters remained with us to their, and our, delight. A very senior R.A.F. combatant officer took some joy telling me that those of us who had wives at home were in for some nasty shocks for most of these had gone badly astray during the war. He did not say how their husbands had conducted themselves.\n\nThe Indian Hospital seemed to be well under control and Major Evans told me he had 314 patients in hospital, about 85% of whom had manifestations of pellagra, and I was able to help by supplying some drugs.\n\nThe ship's P.M.O. Willoughby advised the Admiral that the Oxfordshire should go direct to the United Kingdom to avoid having to tranship patients in Manila, and the ship thereupon accepted another 90 patients and was replaced by the New Zealand hospital ship, Monganui, of which the P.M.O. was Bennett. On 3 September I crossed the harbour and recovered all my buried records from Bowen Road, and I went from there to Shau Ki Wan where I found no trace of the possessions of any of our men who had been killed at the army medical store near there. They had been buried in craters behind the Salesian. I could not get transport", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207519, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 287, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n279\n\namong us. I have referred to only a few people by name and this has occurred when the story would be incomplete otherwise. In singling out individuals I do an injustice to those who are not named and this is clearly unfair. Some, like myself, had weaknesses, but all could be relied upon in difficult times; at the other extreme, some were magnificent throughout, courageous and dependable in the long months and years of the slogging, unexciting routine work needed to nurse and care for the personal needs of patients, to supply and feed them and keep their surroundings in a state of good order and cleanliness. In all these circumstances, I have felt it improper at this distance from events to single out more individuals by name. In an appendix (Appendix C) is provided a list of those who served in the hospital from August 1942 to our release in September 1945. This is a hospital staff Roll of Honour, which it is a privilege to publish.\n\nThough the period December 1941 to August 1942 is not covered by my diaries and I have touched on events during that period only lightly, I must refer specially to the lady nurses of the Q.A.I.N.M.S., the Royal Canadian Nursing Service, the Volunteer Nursing Service, and the Auxiliary Service. Miss E.M.B. Dyson, as matron, was responsible for the training of the additional staff before hostilities and for arranging the staffing of the additional hospitals set up in St. Albert's Convent, in Stanley, in Happy Valley, and in the Hong Kong Hotel. In St. Albert's, the matron, Miss Kathleen Thomson, was wounded, and one sister, Miss Brenda Morgan, was killed by shell fire, and elsewhere, a number of these ladies suffered badly at the hands of Japanese troops. The Royal Naval Hospital had its own nursing service under Miss Olga Franklin and found itself practically in the fighting line before moving to St. Albert's Convent Hospital. When this hospital was overrun, the matron and nursing staff were tied up with ropes for a time. In Stanley, medical officers and patients were murdered before the eyes of the nurses, and some of the latter were criminally assaulted, while nurses at Happy Valley suffered like fates. Our nurses at Bowen Road were spared these fates only, I consider, because the Colony had surrendered just as the hospital was about to be overrun. That these dangers were real is shown further by the advice given to us by a Japanese officer after our surrender that we should keep our nurses away from observation by Japanese troops. All this was known to these ladies, and their courage during", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207520, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 288, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "280\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nhostilities and in captivity was of the highest order and had an enormous effect in inspiring patients and male staff. I have recorded earlier the gloom that descended on Bowen Road when the army and navy nurses and all the women volunteers who backed them up were removed to civil internment in Stanley in August 1942; it was three years before we saw them again. Miss Dyson became deputy head of the Army Nursing Service in later years. Miss Franklin became head of the Naval Nursing Service and others reached high positions in the National Health Service. Others still assumed family responsibilities, so that the splendid qualities which showed so clearly in Hong Kong had not been extinguished by their dreadful experiences. I publish their names in an appendix but as I have no records I trust that any whose names are not included will forgive me.\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nThe future does come \"one day at a time\". I hope that the method I have chosen to present this story, involving the recording of much detail will allow readers to form for themselves a picture of the uncertainties and conflicting influences which constantly beset us. The story is not a smooth one, nor were the events it describes but the patients and staff in the British Military Hospital, Hong Kong, bore what happened to them in a manner in which their corps, services and the Colony can take pride.\n\nACKNOWLEDGEMENTS\n\nI have read widely in the history of the Second World War and in the personal stories by many who had experience in the Far East. I have had discussions with Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke and Miss Gwendolene Colthorpe who was, till recently matron of St. Stephen's Hospital, Chelsea. The Misses Elaine and Helen Ho have been good enough to read the section dealing with the efforts of our friends in Hong Kong to help us. While none of those named has any responsibility for any of the opinions I express I am extremely grateful to them for their help. My wife typed the earlier drafts and without the spur that she applied and without her industry the story would never have been completed. I gladly acknowledge a deep debt to her. I am indebted to Miss Beryl Brown for much valuable advice and help on the production of this account, and to Miss Lorraine Robinson for the final typescript.\n\nLondon, W.8. March 1975.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207529, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 297, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\nAttached to Staff -- Table 2\n\nRfm Archibald\n\nPrivate Rfm Baxter\n\nCambon\n\nPrivate Caruso\n\nRfm Davidson\n\nPrivate Frankiewicz\n\nPrivate Kashton\n\nPrivate Kohut\n\nRfm Woodridge\n\nCorporal Young\n\nRfm Snively\n\nO.S. French\n\nQ.M.S. Hamlen\n\nB.S.M. Lobban\n\nC.S.M. Collings\n\nSergt. Lockie\n\nCorporal Carter\n\nP.O. Waardenborg\n\nCanadian Army\n\nR.N. R.A.S.C. R.A.\n\nH.K.V.D.C.\n\nR. Scots\n\nR. Sigs.\n\nR. Netherlands Navy\n\nAppendix \"D\"\n\nRoll of QAIM.N.S. and Canadian Nursing Sisters, British Military Hospital, Bowen Road (Incomplete)\n\nMiss E. M. B. Dyson\n\nMiss Mirian Beaman\n\nLieut (Miss) Kay Christie - Canadian Service\n\nMiss Gwendelene Colthorpe\n\nMiss Mary Curry\n\nMiss Freda Davis\n\nMiss Molly Gordon\n\nMiss Brenda Morgan (Killed)\n\nMiss Margaret North\n\nMiss Kathleen Thompson\n\nMiss Daphne Van Wart\n\nLieut (Miss) May Waters Canadian Service\n\nMiss Joan Whiteley\n\n289\n\nNotes:--\n\n1. To my great regret I have not got the names of the members of the Hongkong Auxiliary Nursing Service.\n\n2. The two members of the Canadian Service were repatriated to Canada in November 1943.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 } ]