RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 86 Appendix D Some Officers appointed to serve at various times with the Chinese Labour Corps at Noyelles-sur-Mer GHQ Adviser Chinese Labour Asst GHQ Adviser Chinese Labour Col Bryan Charles Fairfax CMG Lt Col Richard Ireland Purdon at HQ CLC Adjutant HQ CLC OC The Depot CLC 2i/c The Dépôt CLC Intelligence Officer The Dépôt CLC QM The Dépôt CLC Adjutant The Depot CLC Records Office CLC OC Dépôt Hospital CLC 2/Lt [temp. Capt] Howard Norman Cole Major Harold Nicolson Brinson DSO, MC Major Edward Charles Fry Capt Cecil Folder Lees Lt (QM) James Henry Elliott MBE Lt David Monro Peattie OBE Lt James Sinclair Hay Lt [acting Major] Henry Stuart Weigall Major [temp.] (acting Lt Col) William Henry Graham Aspland MD, FRCS, RAMC ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 189 speed test over a set distance. This is done, for example, for ships built on the Firth of Clyde, in Scotland (Sinclair, 2000). The late James A W Deacon, Superintendent of Lights in the Hong Kong Government Marine Department, told me they tried unsuccessfully to find a place for timing ships over a measured sea mile on the south side of Hong Kong Island. Eventually such a "course" was, it is understood, set up at Tseung Kwan O (Junk Bay), in the eastern New Territories. It seems unlikely that the two Obelisks at Tai Tam were ever used for timing ships because of their rather 'tucked away' positions. There is also no evidence of there ever having been a second pair of beacons in the vicinity. Are there other possible uses for the two Tai Tam Obelisks? I was informed firstly in the late 1970s by a master mariner and senior civil servant in the Government Marine Department, that a Royal Navy Officer, who had served in Hong Kong before World War Two, had told him that the two Obelisks had been used when submarines submerged during tests. This practice came into being (so it was said) because of the loss of HM Submarine Thetis, on 1 June 1939, on its maiden dive with the loss of 99 sailors and civilians. A diver who went down to try to effect a rescue was also lost. Only four occupants managed to escape from the submarine using the Davis Escape Apparatus. The Royal Navy Officer told the senior Marine Department Officer that submarines were sent to Tai Tam Bay, after repairs or refits in the old Royal Naval Dockyard. At Tai Tam they could dive to periscope depth, in line between the two Obelisks. Then, if anything were to go wrong, the submarine could be traced and the crew rescued hopefully relatively quickly. The now retired Marine Department member of staff acknowledges that he never had material in writing to support this statement but he believes the information was given to him in good faith. When this information was put to Guy Clarabutt, who served in Royal Navy submarines in Hong Kong before World War Two, he said he had never heard of such a practice (Sinclair, 2000). Neither could he remember the two Obelisks at Tai Tam (Waters, 2000). I spoke to a young British naval officer stationed at HMS Tamar, on Hong Kong Island, in 1995. He felt that such a practice was highly unlikely. In 1997, however, I raised the same question with Commodore PJ Melson CBE, Chief of Staff and Deputy to Commander British Forces. He, as ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 303 generals and an admiral, he must have had a very patriotic, British father. As a British subject, Charlie Stilwell was interned in Stanley prison camp during the Second World War. A great story-teller he liked to recount how a police superintendent escaped. In reprisal, the entire police contingent at Stanley was incarcerated in Stanley Prison proper. Some had brought musical instruments from the police band into camp. As they were marched away to prison, Thirlwell recounted, the musicians struck up the well known, stirring march, Colonel Bogey, and everyone in camp joined in singing: 'And the same to you!' As a result, the Japanese felt they were losing control of the situation and fired their revolvers into the air (Sinclair; 1997, 32). After the war, besides working as a lighthouse keeper, Thirlwell led an active life when on shore leave. This included community service. Thirlwell had close connections with the Chaiwan fisher folk and boat people and his wife, in fact, was one of them. 'He was a nice, cheerful man,' Dr James Hayes recalled, ‘and yes, he sang very well...' (Hayes; 1999). He not infrequently sang stylised, Cantonese opera, with correct tones. He even sang lusty, boat-people songs which were beyond the capabilities of most native Cantonese. This surprised many who did not know his background. Charlie's appearance was much like a European. In reality, he was a Hong Kong born and bred Eurasian and he started learning Cantonese at his mother's breast. Perhaps surprisingly, he spoke English with a bit of a North Country English accent. HKBRAS member Louis Thomas agreed with Hayes: 'Yes, he was a jolly man, humorous, and one of those people who seemed to know everyone. He was well thought of. He enjoyed a glass of beer.' Thomas said that at one stage his Round Table in Wanchai linked up with a boat people association at Chaiwan to provide assistance. Thirlwell was one of their leading members. He did a great deal of much needed community service. Deservedly, for his work as a loyal lighthouse keeper (and later in ================================================================================