Transportation - Home Base to Hong Kong

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Battle Information

We do not have specific battle information for this soldier in our online database. For a detailed description of the battle from a Canadian perspective, visit Canadian Participation in the Defense of Hong Kong (published by the Historical Section, Canadian Military Headquarters).

Wounded Information

No wounds recorded.

Hospital Information

No record of hospital visits found.

POW Camps

Transportation SE Asia to Home

District Men From Far East Due Home
The headquarters of M.D. 1 announced this morning that eight Canadian liberated prisoners of war from the Far East will arrive at San Francisco on the vessel Admiral Hughes this weekend. The time and date of arrival of the personnel in London is not yet known. Two of the men are from Windsor and one from Kingsville.
Rfn. Arthur K. Pifher, Arthur J. Pifher (father), Box 892, R.R. 2, Jaris, Ontario; Cpl. Jack Porter, Mrs. Olive Porter (wife), R.R. 2. East Devine street. Sarnia: Rfn. John T. Snively, Mrs. Freda Snively (wife), Kingsville; Rfn. Robert W. Taylor, Mrs. Rose Broughton (mother), 239 Church street, Windsor: Rfn. John A. Williams. Mrs. Clara Williams (mother), No. 1 District Depot, London; Rfn. Russell L Woodrich, Mrs. Emelda Woodrich (wife), 726 Josephine avenue, Windsor: Capt. Gordon C. Gray, Mrs. M. I. Gray, 1-A Langley avenue, Toronto, and Rfn. John F. Chard, Mrs. A. Chard (mother), 226 McDonell avenue, Toronto.

Post-war Photo

Other Military or Public Service

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Death and Cemetery Information

Gravestone Image

Obituary / Life Story

Passed away at his home in Grimsby, on Saturday, April 25, 2015, one day after his 94th birthday. Devoted husband of the late Eleanor (nee Burton) (2007) for 61 years. Loving father of Pamela Newhouse. Cherished grandfather of Jordan, Kevin and Jill Newhouse and great-grandfather of Jade. Dear brother of the late Albert, Everett and Harold Pifher. Brother-in-law of Marie and Florence Pifher. Born in Paris, Ontario in 1921, Ken joined The Royal Rifles of Canada at age 18. He stationed in Niagara Falls at the beginning of the war where he met his future wife Eleanor. He then was deployed to defend Hong Kong in 1941, where he became a prisoner of the Japanese on Christmas day of that year. He endured very harsh treatment and starvation for three years and eight months as a POW and then returned home to marry Eleanor. Ken spent many years as an employee of Ontario Hydro and as a member of the Hong Kong Veterans Association. Together, he and Eleanor ran an antique shop for 20 years before retiring. Above all, Ken loved his family, woodworking, holidays in Florida, coffee with his "cronies" and let's not forget - kitties. Visitation at STONEHOUSE-WHITCOMB FUNERAL HOME, 11 Mountain Street, GRIMSBY (905-945-2755) on Wednesday from 3-5 and 7-9 p.m., where Funeral Service will take place Thursday, April 30, 2015, at 10:30 a.m. Cremation to follow with interment Paris Cemetery at a late date. If desired, memorial contributions to the Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association would be sincerely appreciated by the family.

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Related documentation

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General Comments

My Friend Ken A veteran of Canada's Hong Kong Force, and Three Times Lucky

When the war clouds were gathering over Southern Ontario in the late 1930s, my friend Ken Pifher was finishing his education in a one-room schoolhouse in South Dumfries Township. From there his path, unbeknownst to him, would lead to participation in the first battle faced by Canadian troops in World War Il, and the longest incarceration of POWs in the Canadian military. I feel greatly privileged to have come to know Ken in recent years through work as a volunteer for the Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association of Canada. He is one of only 70-some veterans still alive of the 1,975-man C Force, who were dispatched in 1941 to bolster the garrison at Hong Kong. Nearly one-third of them never returned. What follows is Kens story, as related to me recently in the comfort of his lovely home in Grimsby, Ontario.

South Dumfries Township, located in Brant County, is a particularly beautiful part of Southern Ontario. The land is fertile and gently rolling, reminiscent no doubt of the countryside left behind in Scotland by many of the early immigrant families. It is drained by the historic Grand River, which flows through nearby centers of population, such as Kitchener, Cambridge, Paris and Brantford. The Pifher family farm was located near Paris, and there Ken grew up with three older brothers. For a short while after he had completed his schooling Ken worked at the planing mill of Sanderson-Harold in Paris. In 1940 at the age of 18 he enlisted in the local militia group known as the Tenth Brant Dragoons. Their activities were centered at the armories in Paris. Later that year this group went active by joining the Dufferin-Haldimand Regiment. This regiment was centered at the armories in l3rantford, and enlisted men throughout the Grand River basin all the way south to Lake Erie.

By this time Ken was in full-time, active service. His off-site training took place at the major army camp at Niagara-On-The-Lake, including the nearby rifle range. The regiment was soon assigned to guard duty at some centers of vital importance in the Niagara Region. These included the Welland Canal, and the several hydro electric generating stations on the Niagara River. They were joined in this activity by the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada Regiment, based in Hamilton, Ontario, and the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, based in St. Catharines and Welland, Ontario.

In 1941 Ken went off duty on recuperation leave for two months, during which time his regiment relocated to Nanaimo, B. C. and became part of the 13th Brigade. Consequently, when he returned to active duty, tho still part of the Dufferin-Haldimand Regiment, he was sent to the Infantry Training Center at Camp Borden, Ontario. With his own regiment being over-strength at the time, Ken was in line for reassignment. When a request was received for 100 men to join the Royal Rifles of Canada, he volunteered, and was ordered to board a train heading west at Hornepayne, in Northern Ontario. Although he did not know it at the time, he was heading for Hong Kong, where he would experience an intense and deadly eighteen day battle against an invading Japanese army, followed by three years and nine months of captivity as a prisoner of war.

As Rifleman Pifher, he sailed out of the Port of Vancouver on October 27, 1941 aboard a converted passenger ship, the HMT Awatea bound for Hong Kong by way of Honolulu and Manila. Their escort ship was the HMCS Prince Robert, the CNRs merchant cruiser. The troops had no idea of their destination until they were in the waters off Hawaii. After landing in Hong Kong Ken was assigned to the Pioneer Platoon where he exercised the woodworking skills he had learned at the Sanderson and Harold firm.

Many fine books have been written about this little-known episode in Canadas annals of World War II. Most writers characterize the Hong Kong experience as a colossal tragedy. The total garrison amounted to some 14,000 soldiers and a small number of naval and air force personnel. Of the almost 2,000 Canadian troops who were dispatched there, 557 were killed in battle or died of wounds or disease. They had been given very limited training for a combat role, and were shockingly short of basic supplies and equipment. A total of 264 Canadians died in the POW camps. Many of those who survived the years of starvation, maltreatment, and torture at the hands of their Japanese captors came home scarred for life. Brereton Greenhous, writing for the Canadian War Museum, calls it a Canadian catastrophe. Pierre Berton has variously referred to the Battle of Hong Kong and its aftermath as a tragedy, a debacle, and a fiasco. Giving in to enormous public pressure, the Government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King soon authorized a commission of investigation. We are enormously thankful that Ken Pither survived this nightmarish experience relatively unscathed, and has lived a happy and healthy life into his late 80s.

Ken spent the first nine months of his captivity in North Point Camp on the island of Hong Kong, followed by three years to wars end in Sham Shui Po Camp on the edge of the mainland city of Kowloon. It was in this camp that the Canadian troops had first been quartered on arrival at Hong Kong in November 1941. The years of captivity span the period from Christmas Day 1941 to August 1945. In the beginning Ken was assigned the duties of a Medical Orderly (there were four for North Point Camp), assisting the Medical Officer for the RRC, Captain Banfill. It was from this camp that the POWs were sent out in a series of drafts during 1943 and 1944 to Japan to work as slave labourers under conditions even worse than existed in the Hong Kong camps. Following dispatch of the first draft of prisoners there was less work to be done by the Orderlies, with the result that Ken became a member of the work parties. One of their many projects around the island was building an extension to Kal Tak airport. This is when Ken became Three Times Lucky. Having been exempt from the first draft because he was an Orderly, he missed the second draft because he was working in camp when the selection was made from men assigned to the work parties, thus making Ken two times lucky. He avoided the third draft because it was taken from the men who were in camp at a time that he was busy again with a work party. Hence, as Ken says, he was Three Times Lucky, and adds the comment I am glad I wasnt picked. A total of 1,183 Canadians were moved to Japan, including 603 men of the Royal Rifles of Canada. When the British Navy relieved the Colony in September 1945 Ken was one of only 134 other ranks of the RRC remaining at Sham Shui Po Camp. Disease, despair and near-starvation ravaged the prisoners in the camps. Medical supplies were pathetically inadequate, despite some underground activities. Ken says he was fortunate, as the worst thing that happened to him occurred when his eyes developed an extreme sensitivity to light. Fortunately,this condition healed itself naturally before he was released from camp.

In early August 1945 word filtered into Kens camp that the Japanese had been defeated. With this news, the guards and all other Japanese ranks in Sham Shui PO Camp disappeared quickly and quietly. Ken says there was no stampede of the prisoners to leave the camp, as they wanted to be sure that it was safe to do so. The first relief they felt was through parachute drops of medical supplies and clothing by Allied aircraft. Then came food supplies and information dropped by way of pamphlets. He says they waited patiently until the end of August in order to be satisfied that Allied forces were in place and in a position to take over the Island. lhey had seen the Prince Robert sail into port, and had availed themselves of the abundant supplies that she brought.

When all arrangements were complete for them to leave camp, Ken boarded a US Navy ship, the Admiral Hughes, and sailed for Manila. This was a central processing point for personnel who were being repatriated to America. From there he and his comrades sailed on to Gordon Head Reception Centre in Victoria. Here a warm welcome awaited them as they began integration back into Canadian life. It is on record that at Vancouver police cordons had to hold the crowds back, as men and women fought to touch the heroes of Hong Kong. After that Ken faced a long trip by train to the East, and home again. Military personnel were dropped off all along the line. Kens turn came when he reached Toronto in September 1945. Next stop for him and his pals was Chorley Park Convalescent Hospital for medical assessment and rehabilitation. From there he was transferred to the Exhibition Grounds, at which location he was discharged in April 1946. C Force had been the first Canadian troops to go into battle in World War II, and the last to return home.

The next big event in Kens life was marriage to the love of his life Eleanor Burton on May 22, 1946 at Metropolitan United Church in Toronto. They had been sweethearts since meeting at a skating rink in Niagara Falls in January 1941; and had a lot of catching up to do, as none of Eleanors letters reached Ken in Hong Kong. During the whole course of his imprisonment he received a total of three letters from his mother and father, and nineteen from other family members. The Japanese held up mail for unreasonable lengths of time. Some of the Canadian prisoners who went on the early drafts to Japan never received a single letter during the entire four years they were away from home. At the beginning of their captivity five months passed before the prisoners were allowed to write home. Nine months passed before the Canadian government was able to begin sending official notification of prisoner lists to relatives.

After discharge Ken returned to his pre-war job in Paris for a short while before hiring on with Ontario Hydro. He is proud of the 30 years and 3 months that he spent at the Sir Adam Beck generating stations in Queenston, Ontario before retiring in 1977.

Kens daughter, Pam Newhouse of Niagara Falls, has done a wonderful job of helping him keep up with the affairs of the HKVCA since his wife Eleanor passed away in 2007. Ken was especially proud to attend the dedication ceremony of the C Force Memorial Wall in Ottawa on August 15, 2009. Now he is looking forward to traveling with Pam and two grandchildren to Hong Kong in December 2010 to mark the 65th anniversary of his liberation.

The author of the history of Kens regiment observes Hong Kong has come to be rightly regarded as one of the major mistakes of the British and Canadian governments during World War 11. Nevertheless the men returned home with their pride intact. God bless Ken and all who served with him in C Force. They are true Canadian Heroes.

Written and submitted with the family's approval by Gordon Coyne, Area Representative, West Central Area, Ontario HKVCA of Canada June 2010

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End of Report.

Report generated: 27 Apr 2025.