the war in Europe was a distant anxiety, but the Japanese had invaded China, and Hong Kong was threatened. Due to [my father’s] previous service with the London Irish Rifles, he was called up, and commissioned as a Captain in the Royal Engineers. In 1940, my mother, Daphne and I were evacuated to Melbourne, Australia with [two other wives and their children]. All the three husbands remained in Hong Kong.

he three were to be sent for a Staff College course in Burma, and were given two weeks’ leave. They contacted their wives and agreed that all three families would meet at the Baguio Country Club in the North of the Philippines. This duly went ahead, and all met in Baguio late in 1941. The men received a signal from Hong Kong, cancelling the staff course, and they were ordered to return to Hong Kong forthwith. The wives and two children were to await a ship to take them back to Melbourne. However, December 7th brought the Japanese attack on the US naval base in Pearl Harbour in Hawaii; the surprise Japanese attack. All shipping was cancelled, and we remained in Baguio, and were taken prisoner by the advancing Japanese army on Christmas Eve. As we filed out of the Club [dining hall], clutching whatever we could carry, a Filipino waiter gave my mother a spoon, somewhat to her surprise. That spoon became a prized possession. When you have nothing, a spoon is useful, and a handy toy. And so began our 3 1/2 years’ internment.”

 (Artwork courtesy of Derek Bird.)