The Weir Family's Experience as POWs in Hong Kong

The contributor's parents went to Hong Kong in the 1930s. The contributor's mother, Margaret Winifred Grace Weir, nee Waugh, had trained to be a nurse in Newcastle and London, and then worked as a nurse in the Royal Hong Kong Hospital. The contributor's father, Arthur Gordon Weir, was a police officer in the Hong Kong police. After the Japanese invaded Hong Kong, on Boxing Day Margaret and Arthur were marched away to Stanley, incarcerated and imprisoned in the prison officer's quarters.

The contributor was born in 1944, in a Japanese prison. The contributor's parents had 8 children born in captivity over 5 years. The contributor spent the first 18 months of their life as a Japanese POW, in a military internment camp in Hong Kong.

At the end of the war, when the Japanese surrendered, the contributor's father was sick and recovered in Australia. The contributor and their mother were in Hong Kong, and were taken to Liverpool, UK, by a troop ship. The storms were so bad that they had to wait three days for the ship to be able to dock in Liverpool.

The family received some compensation for being POWs. And the contributor's father retrained to be a teacher. 70 years later, the contributor went back to Hong Kong for reunion.