The Ient Family: Family History

Capture and Sham Shui Po POW camp

Capture and Sham Shui Po POW camp, and Harold tells the story of Captain Ford of the Royal Scots and Flight Lieutenant White of the RAF

BBC: Very nostalgic all this going back, isn’t it, for you? Were you both herded into the same camp?

Capture and Sham Shui Po POW camp

Monty: No. I was caught at the Peak Tram, at the top. We were chased all along the hill, it was about a thirteen-day movement from Wong Mee Chun right the way back to the Peak, and we were cornered at the Peak. We then heard of the surrender and we were told to lay down our arms, which we did. We were quite dismayed about the whole thing but it had to be; they’d cut the island’s water supply; so no one could carry on. We were then marched down to Victoria Barracks where we were interned for a week. But with Harold’s case he was taken off to hospital and spent quite a long time in hospital because his shoulder was shattered.

Harold: I’m very pleased I never actually surrendered.

BBC: So Harold you didn’t see the Japanese Victory Parade, which you did, didn’t you, Colonel Truscott?

Monty: Yes, I saw the Victory Parade; we were made to watch it from Victoria Barracks, from A block, and we saw thousands of Japanese troops marching past. Cavalry regiments, little light tanks, soldiers pulling small field guns. We were seven days in Victoria Barracks and after that we were marched to Sham Shui Po (in the New Territories) via the Star Ferry.

The interviewer then asked Monty about the voyage on the Lisbon Maru.

Before describing the trip Monty commented about the conditions in Sham Shui Po camp.

Monty: One thing I must say about Sham Shui Po, which probably hasn’t come out before, is that the health of the camp so degenerated that they divided the camp up in half and then one half again. Two quarters of the camp held dysentery patients, about five hundred, and the other quarter were diphtheria patients, and you weren’t allowed across. They put wire up. We had very few medical supplies. Health was so poor but a doctor in the camp managed to bribe a Japanese guard to get some yeast tablets. We had no bread as such, but we had sacks of flour for soup and that sort of thing, and sugar, and with this minimum amount of sugar and flour this doctor put the yeast in and made a yeast ferment. Every day we had to go to a certain sector with our tin mugs and we received a pint of this horrible floury liquid, but the health of the camp came up very, very quickly.

BBC: Probably saved some of your lives.

Monty: Exactly, yes. But to get back to your question, we left Sham Shui Po on 27 September 1942. We were taken out in lighters onto the Lisbon Maru. We were told that we were going to a very green country where we would work but conditions would be better.

Harold tells the story of Captain Ford of the Royal Scots and Flight Lieutenant White of the RAF

BBC: But some of the POWs, I believe, were taken to Canton?

Monty: Well, this was connected with the incident associated with Captain Ford –probably Harold knows the story better than I do.

Harold: Well, Captain Ford[i] and Flight Lieutenant White of the RAF were in touch with Chinese guerrillas and British Intelligence outside the camp. This was done by system of ‘note passing’. The members of the Ration Party were the only people within the camp who were able to get out. They were approached by Chinese truck drivers and the notes were brought back into camp. Some notes were put in baskets of vegetables but there were all types of ways of passing the notes back and forth. I think Captain Ford was reminded that escape was his main duty still, and the story goes that it was suggested to him that he should lead a mass escape from the camp, and this would be backed up by Chinese guerrillas. The complement of Japanese soldiers had decreased and it looked as though there might have been a fair chance if this had occurred. They were going to make their way over the hills. Ford couldn’t see his way to do this because it meant leaving half the camp, who were hospitalised. He had no idea what reprisals the Japanese might take against them, but it wasn’t long after this that the Japanese became aware that something was going on. The consequence was that Ford and White were taken out of the camp and eventually executed. Both of them got the posthumous award of the George Cross. Other members were taken out of the camp; I think at first they were taken to Stanley, but eventually to Canton where they remained till the end of the war. I believe that Major Boxer, now Professor Boxer, who was an interpreter, was one of the few people who refused to sign a declaration not to escape and possibly this was the reason that he found himself in Canton.

Monty: Everyone had to sign a declaration not to escape. At first we refused. In the end we received a message from our officers, who were being held in Argyle Street, saying we should sign. They said every man’s pay book will include a note saying it was signed under duress. So we signed.

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