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This last chapter tells the stories of the Second World War that cannot be left out of a history of the Hong Kong Cemetery. The war ushered in years of turmoil and suffering for Hong Kong and a little of this can be deduced from the Cemetery registers. One hundred and thirteen soldiers, forty-six of whom are entered as unknown, were buried over the weeks of fighting when the Japanese invaded in December 1941. Conditions were such that none of them could be given a funeral service. All these soldiers were exhumed in October 1947 and taken to the Saiwan Military Cemetery. But more dramatically, on Christmas Day 1941, three Chinese Jockey Club grooms or ma-fu as they are called were buried by the Red Cross in Section 19, and the grave of the first became also the final resting place for one of their horses. The horse and its groom were entered in the register as numbers 10043 and 10044. According to the records in 1976, these bones were exhumed and removed to the ossuary to make way for the Aberdeen Tunnel. In fact the horse was not the first animal to be buried in the Cemetery. In January 1931, Molly Hope [17/13/12], the wife of an officer in the South Wales Borderers, was buried with ‘Tango, her beloved Alsatian’. The dog had died ten days before Mrs. Hope. In February and March 1942, terrible events must have taken place close to the Cemetery and emergency burial places urgently needed. On 1 February, four Chinese males were buried together in one grave numbered 10062 in Section 17 and on 2 February, five more were buried together in Section 45, followed by four more on 3 March. According to the records, these Chinese men are still there. The Cemetery itself was fought over as is shown by shell damage to certain graves, for example to that of John Smith [10/2/3]. During the war years, very few funerals were held in the Cemetery. About seventy civilians were buried, almost all by Johan Nielson, a Scandinavian pastor, who remained as the only Protestant minister on call during the war. The Russian dead were buried by Arch Priest Dimitri Uspensky [11A/4/11], vicar of the Russian Orthodox Church in Hong Kong. Many of those buried had names Chapter 28 The Second World War and Its Aftermath Lim_txt.indd 531 28/12/2010 4:17 PM Forgotten Souls 532 that put them into the category of Eurasians, like Starling Jex, Arthur Hall, Josephine Ryrie Greaves and Aileen Rapp. Sympathy must go to Lavinia Alice Madar [37/2/18] of the Armenian family who survived the war years, only to be killed at the very end by an American bombing raid on Kowloon. Surprisingly, according to the records, among the invaders who were buried in the Cemetery, there were more Koreans than Japanese. The records list eighteen Koreans, eight males, seven females and four children, whereas only sixteen Japanese are listed. These graves have not been found. The remains were likely to have been repatriated after the war. Sixty-one of those buried in the Cemetery are known to have been interned by the Japanese, among whom one of the best remembered must be Harold Smyth [11A/9/1], a director of Deacon & Co. He is an example of a man who came out of the ordeal with an enhanced reputation. He had himself assigned to the military hospital in Bowen Road where he took charge of the large copper outside the hospital building. Daily he filled it with water to boil the daily ration of one pint using dried grass twigs and anything burnable that he could find. Later at the Stanley Camp Harold is said to have helped hundreds survive the ordeal of camp life. After the war he lived quietly on Cheung Chau Island and distinguished himself by acts of kindness and generosity to all in need. It was said at his funeral service: ‘Chinese or European, rich or poor, whatever their virtues or faults, he was a friend to all’. At St. John’s Cathedral a room in their new hall was named after him, and at St. Andrew’s Church in Kowloon the new pews and choir stalls were also named after Smyth. 1 Other Stanley camp internees buried in the Cemetery include the two sons of the late commissioner for Chinese customs in Kowloon, William George Lay [45/11/4]. William was the...

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