Helen's Evacuation from Shanghai

My great-grandmother, Helen, only just died last summer. We had some of her war artefacts already and found a lot of stuff when clearing out the house. One side of my family had been in Shanghai for two generations by the outbreak of the Second World War. Donald, Helen's father (the contributor's great-great-grandfather) was a great cricketer (see the newspaper clipping). The newspaper discusses that games had to be stopped because of the firing! In China, they would go to play matches in different ports, but Japan had invaded everywhere around the settlement. Japan had invaded a year before the war, but my family didn't leave Shanghai until 1941. Although there was not mandatory evacuation (as China was not a formal colony), my family evacuated to Australia. Helen couldn't remember when they left Shanghai, but we could work it out through the certificate of crossing the Equator, which was signed by the master of the ship that they travelled on, dated 20th May 1941.

The contributor discussed her great-great-grandfather seeing the family for last time before he was sent to India. One member of the family had worked on a plantation in Papua New Guinea and went missing when Japanese invaded, presumed dead. There are a couple of photos, but the letter is the main thing that the contributor said they found fascinating. In the letter, there is hope, although Helen wrote that they don't know whether the family member in Papua New Guinea had died or not. Helen discussed how she felt a lot of emotion not being home but grateful to have left China, as everyone in Shanghai had been interned.

Helen would have only been nine when war broke out. She kept a photo album from 1942 to 1947, which details her brother being in the cadets and joining the navy. Helen's friends from Shanghai went everywhere, as Shanghai was so international! In the photo album, the contributor said that there is a "lovely page with pictures of friends, showing the war from a teenage perspective!"

There is a photograph of Donald Watson-Leach- in Bombay. During World War One, Donald had been in the RAF. During World War Two, Donald didn't go into RAF, but was in the Engineer Corps in Bombay. With a different scale of war in the Pacific, they weren't put into service quite as quickly, and Donald joined the Corps in 1942. There is also a photograph of the Shanghai International settlement's volunteer corps practicing defense in 1940. There is no date annotated for the photograph of the landscape but judging by the ships and lack of war memorial, it perhaps depicts wartime Shanghai. There is a photograph of Helen and her brother Duncan when he joined the navy (as soon as he was eighteen). And there is another photograph of the two of them, possibly after the war when they were reunited! From the photos, one can tell that Helen was very proud of her brother and dad, but there are also photos of the boys she fancied! Helen attended the Wilderness School in Adelaide (see the photo of a school play in the album). Helen's father was away for the entire war. There is a letter saying that as soon as Duncan leaves school he wants to join the Navy. All of these letters are Helen writing back to Scotland.

In the photo album, dates aren't always written on individual photographs, and some stuff has fallen out. Some photos of Duncan in the cadets, and of Donald, Duncan, and Helen reuniting in England in 1944. Also, some photographs of postwar London.

After the war, Helen went to Cornwall and then back to Dundee where the family had a farm. Helen didn't return to Shanghai until 1947. Her mum died in 1949 when she was only 19. Then, they moved to Hong Kong. In the album, there is a photograph going past Hong Kong in 1947. And there are photos of various ports coming back from Shanghai.

Helen did talk about her experiences. The family really enjoyed being in Australia when she was evacuated and was grateful for not being interned. My family are still friendly with other families generations down; families who were interned had very different experiences to Helen. Helen would go back to Australia when she was able to, and lots of people stayed there and didn't return to Shanghai or left after being interned. Helen would also visit to Hong Kong, Australia and Britain. Helen was born in Shanghai, and so was her mother, so it was all they knew.

Unfortunately, I don't have such detailed information from the other side of my family. In WW1, my great-grandfather on the other side of my family was deafened. He was a Medicine student at Edinburgh University. In World War Two, I think he joined the Home Guard in Gilmerton. I have found information about him in archives, but he died when my grandfather was young, so I don't have personal stories.