Miss B C Redwood

Photocopy of ms diary (410pp January 1941 - December 1942), ms diary (88pp January - September 1945), ts transcripts (180pp) of edited extracts from diaries (November 1941 - August 1945) and photocopies of miscellaneous writings (12pp August - September 1945), together giving excellent descriptions of her experiences: as a civilian in Hong Kong in 1941, including social life, the approach of war, the battle for, and the fall of the island to the Japanese; as an internee (with her mother and sisters) in Stanley camp, Hong Kong (January 1942 - August 1945), giving useful insights into camp organisation, the effects of the war and internment upon the whole family, relations between internees and guards, food shortages, medical treatment in camp, constant hopes of repatriation, Allied air raids, morale and the liberation.

<p>The papers of her mother, Mrs M W Redhood, are also held in the Department of Documents.</p>

Unrestricted

Barbara Catherine Redwood left England for Hong Kong in 1938 with her parents and two sisters. Her father took up an appointment in the Naval Dockyard but died suddenly two years later. By this time Miss Redwood had become a shorthand-typist with the Hong Kong Government and her mother and sisters also had jobs, so rather than return to air-raids and rationing in Britain they decided to stay on. After the fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese in December 1941 the four women were eventually sent to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp where they spent the remainder of the War.

Miss Redwood's hobby was writing stories and poetry and she was also a keen diarist. Her diaries from 1941 onwards provide a good picture of civilian life in Hong Kong in the months preceding the capture of the island, of the invasion itself and immediate aftermath, of the daily routine of internment, and of the excitement at news of the Japanese surrender in 1945. Miss Redwood was twenty-six years old at the time of her release.

Miss Redwood's mother, Mrs M W Redwood, wrote an account of her experiences as an auxiliary nurse at the emergency hospital in the Jockey Club, Happy Valley, Hong Kong in December 1941. A copy of this is held on microfilm in the Department of Documents.