HKVCA Image Gallery

This is the paper that protects the cover of his diary. On
the front it says ACM Thomson RRC

Front cover, probably drawn by someone who was with him in POW camp. Excerpt from an email to Lindsay Thomson: "The 2 Chinese characters at the lower left hand corner in the 4th photo with a man playing a flute is actually your grandpa's name in Chinese (the Cantonese dialague) - and is a direct sound-translation of "Thomson". Seemingly, someone had given your grandpa a Chinese name. " ( Provided by someone in Hong Kong.)

Signature

These are signatures and addresses of individuals who were in the Royal Rifles with him. I do know that he knew a lot of them as they came from Quebec City.
The name at the bottom is TG MacAulay Major RRC, 31 Laurentide
Ave Quebec City, Canada

CC Price. Capt. of Price House, Quebec was and still is a well known family. They had a business called Price Brothers just outside the walls of old Quebec.

Signatures of Denison, Smith, Clarke, and others

.. Power LT, Framore Lodge, St. Pacome, Quebec ( St
Pacome is little over an hours drive east of Quebec on the shores of the St
Lawrence.
Ian Breakey LT , Breakyville. PQue ( I'm not sure why it's written that way) He and his family were also well known and the town on the south shore near the Old Quebec Bridge is named after the family. The next two Royal names must be of the same family. Donald Ross of 205 St Louis Rd is another well known english family from Quebec City. The Rosses still reside in Quebec.
John HC McGreevy was a good friend of Pop as was the last one WB Bradley Lt. and worked at Price Brothers

The writing is very scratchy and faded. At the bottom is RE Simons. This is the same family of Simons clothing store in Quebec City and Montreal.

Signature of James Barnett

In the middle is Angus A MacMillan Leut. RRC . He returned to Quebec and became principal of Quebec High School for many years. While I attended school there he was always called Col.
MacMillan and was very well loved by faculty and students.

Signatures of those serving with the Winnipeg Grenadiers

Signatures of those serving with the Winnipeg Grenadiers. J.A. Bailing, 608 Gertrude Ave.

Signatures of those serving with the Winnipeg Grenadiers

H.Q. Force C. Signatures: Delonghery, Bush, Cray, Spence, Cunningham. The faded signature is P or G Billings Capt. R.E.E.S. , c/o R E ES officers mess. Vimy Barracks, Barriefield Ont.

Capt Reid

Officers other than Canadian

Officers other than Canadian. At the bottom In ink R c (?) GilesLt. Col. depot Royal
Marines, Teal, Kent Then also "Brown tile" Heather Lane, west
Chitington, Sussex, Eng.

Officers other than Canadian. Major L Hayes. Royal corps of Signals, Beeston, Nottingham, England, Lt. J Pipe 12 reg R.A. (coast), Capt. W.J.
Roberts Royal Artillery, Lt. FT Lnoswell(?) , Lt T Mann

Officers other than Canadian

This was taken out of the South China Morning Post and the HongKong Telegraph dated August 30, 1945. It announced the surrender and proceedings to the people of Hong Kong.

Through to image 142. This is the beginning of Pop's diary of Milestones. He didn't say very much after the surrender to the Japanese. Probably because he didn't want to be caught with writings that could cost him his health and maybe because he didn't want his family to know what it was really like.

Pop's diary of Milestones

Officers Pay. During his stay at Camp Pop became paymaster and he kept records of what each level of command were given as pay.
This page shows the title (Lt. Col) gross pay(220) Ration (60)
Saving (0) and Net (160) between January, 1942 and July 1942.

From what I can see this was a record that was kept on the contents of a parcel that was sent to Pop by his wife Katherine Thomson. It lists the item and how many of each item. This particular parcel was received by Pop on Feb. 27, 1945. I have no idea when it was sent. Quite possibly near the beginning of internment.

Pop made a list of all the mail he
received from his family. The date it was sent, who sent it (Kate-his wife, Christie -youngest son, Fay-oldest daughter, Hilda and George- twins. George is my father. The list starts on Dec. 1942 and ends Aug. 25 1945 as sent. The letters were received between April 19,
1943 four months after the first letter was sent and Sept 16, 1945.
The waiting in between mail must have been extremely hard to take, never knowing if he got it or maybe even the worst case scenario.

List of mail received

These were letters sent from close friends and partners.
Jeffrey Hale Hospital was and still is the only English speaking hospital in Quebec City. The Royal Trust Co. was one that I think he was on the board of directors. J Graval was Pop's business partner of Thomson and Graval. Pop was a legal lawyer. Rex (Meredith) was Pop's cousin.

This is the last name on the list of letters sent by friends.

Camp Nationalities (officers Camp). I was very surprised with the last nationality. I think it's Iran but I could be wrong. At the bottom of the page Pop wrote down statistics on the Royal Air Force at Hong Kong. This included strength, casualties and equipment and also added was an extract from the Japan Time(?)

Hong Kong Garrison. This is a list of all sections of the Canadian army and navy involved and the number of men in each.

Continuation of the list of the Hong Kong Garrison

Le Retour written by FG O'Neil att. RRC 1943. He recounts his experience of returning to PEI and stopping in Quebec City where a huge crowd roared their welcome to the returning troups. He mentions a lot of people who were there with him. This continues on images 54 and 55

Le Retour written by FG O'Neil

This is a list of the Ribbons worn in Camp. Pop has listed
44 different ribbons listed.

This is a list of Prices of Goods on or about July 1st of the years mentioned , 1942-1945. These were from the canteen, Hong Kong News and the Black Market. Just to give an example. The price
of brown sugar in 1942 was .90. In 1945 it sky rocketed to 160.00.
White sugar went from a 1.00 to 250.00.

L. E. Gendron , another friend of Pop

Analysis Force 'C' CDN. Army 14.8.45

To My Wife
This is a poem that appeared in the Shamshuipo P.O.W magazine issued in September 1943.

Pop received this Christmas Greetings in December 1942 along with something enclosed.

This notice was dropped from a plane in P.O.W. Camp Shamshuipo at 4:30 P.M. August 18th 1945.
When the Japanese accepted the Allied peace term an official representative went to the camps and made sure of the well being of those concerned until the military could come in. I do know from what my father George (a son of Pop) told me was that when the Japanese abandoned the P.O.W. camps there was great fear of being totally unprotected and unarmed from the local people.

Christmas Greetings from Canada and signed by WL Mackenzie
King, Prime Minister. It was sent in 1943 but only reached Pop in
April, 1945.

The Taj Mahal A short description and history written in pencil. I can't make out the signature of who wrote it and drew the picture in image 65.

Taj Mahal A pencil drawing

Detail of fleet under Vice Adm. Harcourt to take over Hong Kong, 30-8-45

Value of M.Y. in English pennies.
Pop wrote down a month by month value for each year as a P.O.W

Map of Newfoundland and Gulf of St Lawrence. Drawn in pencil and coloured with crayon

Map of Hong Kong in pencil and coloured pencil. The names of mountains have been added

Strength of Canadian forces on Leaving Canada. They sailed on the 27/10/41 and arrived Hong Kong 16/11/41

A chart of how many died of sickness or wounds.

Pop kept a record of his weight loss and gain while he was
a P.O.W. He started at 173 pds and at one point hit a low of 112
pds. in 1942

Canadian Battle Casualties (fatal)

Draft from Hong Kong and a list of Red Cross Parcels.
Some were received while he was at Argyl St. Camp. He was eventually moved to Shamshuipo Camp.

A list of Monthly cost of rations per person at Government controlled prices.

The Eight Immortals
Drawn in pencil and crayon by P. J. Poole

The Eight Immortals cont'd

The Eight Immortals A description of each
Immortal written by P.J. Poole, c/o H.B.M. Consulate-General , Shanghai, China

The eight Immortals con't.

Back cover of Diary

Brown Paper back cover

From Lindsay Thomson, Granddaughter: "This is my grandfather, Captain Andrew Cecil Meredith Thomson of the Royal Rifles of Canada. He was born and raised in Quebec City and died there. Quebec was his home for life."

Capt ACM Thomson He had joined the 8th Royal Rifles on
June 18th, 1915 and fought over in France and Belgium between 1915 and 1919. In December 1918 he had been appointed staff captain 10th infantry brigade. He returned to Canada May 14,1919.
He married Kate Christie who was nursing wounded in England, at Folkstone May 10, 1916.
Pop, as he has always been known, joined when he was too young.
When WW2 came along he again lied about his age and ended up in Hong Kong.