RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 160 DONALD C. BOWIE side 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. The 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. In 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. Earlier in this account, I said that the topography of the Colony left our troops little or no room for manoeuvre in defence. The ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG 279 among 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. Though 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 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG Attached to Staff -- Table 2 Rfm Archibald Private Rfm Baxter Cambon Private Caruso Rfm Davidson Private Frankiewicz Private Kashton Private Kohut Rfm Woodridge Corporal Young Rfm Snively O.S. French Q.M.S. Hamlen B.S.M. Lobban C.S.M. Collings Sergt. Lockie Corporal Carter P.O. Waardenborg Canadian Army R.N. R.A.S.C. R.A. H.K.V.D.C. R. Scots R. Sigs. R. Netherlands Navy Appendix "D" Roll of QAIM.N.S. and Canadian Nursing Sisters, British Military Hospital, Bowen Road (Incomplete) Miss E. M. B. Dyson Miss Mirian Beaman Lieut (Miss) Kay Christie - Canadian Service Miss Gwendelene Colthorpe Miss Mary Curry Miss Freda Davis Miss Molly Gordon Miss Brenda Morgan (Killed) Miss Margaret North Miss Kathleen Thompson Miss Daphne Van Wart Lieut (Miss) May Waters Canadian Service Miss Joan Whiteley 289 Notes:-- 1. To my great regret I have not got the names of the members of the Hongkong Auxiliary Nursing Service. 2. The two members of the Canadian Service were repatriated to Canada in November 1943. ================================================================================