A R Billings

Microfilm copy of a ts journal (105pp) compiled from original diaries and describing how, as an Engine Room Artificer serving in December 1941 in the destroyer HMS THRALIAN based on Hong Kong, he was badly wounded when the ship was attacked by aircraft some ten days before the colony's surrender to the Japanese and became a patient in the RN Hospital in Hong Kong (December 1941 - January 1942) before being moved by the Japanese to St Albert's Convent (February 1942), Bowen Road Military Hospital (March - September 1942) and, on completion of his convalescence, to Shamshuipo prisoner of war camp (September 1942 - September 1945), with interesting references to the shortcomings of the accommodation in Shamshuipo, the increasingly acute shortage of food and other essentials in the camp, illness and fluctuating morale among the prisoners, the behaviour of Major Cecil Boon RASC, the Senior British Officer in the camp, and reactions to the news of Japan's surrender and their liberation.

<p>See also IWM Photograph Archive (HU 29325 - 29379 covering service in Thralian in 1941)</p>

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