Individual Report: K62090 Stewart GANTON

Rank:	First Name:	Second Name:
General Information
Lance Corporal	Stewart
From:	Enlistment Region:	Date of Birth (y-m-d):
Prince George BC	British Columbia	1914-08-01
Appointment:	Company:	Platoon:
	A

Transportation - Home Base to Hong Kong

Members of 'C' Force from the East travelled across Canada by CNR troop train, picking up reinforcements enroute. Stops included Valcartier, Montreal, Ottawa, Armstrong ON, Capreol ON, Winnipeg, Melville SK, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper, and Vancouver, arriving in Vancouver on Oct 27 at 0800 hrs.

The Winnipeg Grenadiers and the local soldiers that were with Brigade Headquarters from Winnipeg to BC travelled on a CPR train to Vancouver.

All members embarked from Vancouver on the ships AWATEA and PRINCE ROBERT. AWATEA was a New Zealand Liner and the PRINCE ROBERT was a converted cruiser. "C" Company of the Rifles was assigned to the PRINCE ROBERT, everyone else boarded the AWATEA. The ships sailed from Vancouver on Oct 27th and arrived in Hong Kong on November 16th, having made brief stops enroute at Honolulu and Manila.

Equipment earmarked for 'C' Force use was loaded on the ship DON JOSE, but would never reach Hong Kong as it was rerouted to Manila when hostilities commenced.

On arrival, all troops were quartered at Nanking Barracks, Sham Shui Po Camp, in Kowloon.

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

Date Wounded	Wound Description	References
41/12/20	N/A

Hospital Information

Name of hospital	Date of admission	Date of discharge	Comments	Reference
HK-BMH	12/21/1941	N/A
HK-UNK	01/20/1942	N/A		118
HK-BMH	N/A	N/A	known to be at hospital on 42 Aug 19	118(42 Sep 21); 26

POW Camps

Camp ID	Camp Name	Location	Arrival Date	Departure Date
HK-NP-01	North Point	North Point, Hong Kong Island	N/A	N/A
HK-AS-01	Argyle Street	Kowloon, Hong Kong	N/A	N/A
HK-SA-01	Shamshuipo	Kowloon, Hong Kong	Capture	42 Jan 22
HK-NP-02	North Point	North Point, Hong Kong Island	42 Jan 22	42 Sep 26
HK-SA-02	Shamshuipo	Kowloon, Hong Kong	42 Sep 26	45 Sep 10

Transportation SE Asia to Home

Transport Mode	Arrival Destination	Arrival Date	Comments
HMCS Prince Robert	Esquimalt, BC	1945-10-20	Manila to Esquimalt, BC

Canadian repatriation Draft #7 will embark at Manila, berth 116, on H.M.C.S. Prince Robert for Vancouver, Canada, 29 Sep 45.

Post-war Photo

No other or additional related information found. Please submit documents to us using the contact link at the top of this page.

Other Military or Public Service

No other or additional related information found. Please submit documents to us using the contact link at the top of this page.

Death and Cemetery Information

Date of Death (y-m-d)	Cause of Death	Death Class
1973-05-18		Post War
Cemetery Location	Cemetery	Grave Number	Gravestone Marker
	.	Cremation

Gravestone Image

Obituary / Life Story

Prisoner of War From City Safe

L Cpl. Stewart Ganton of Prince George, a member of the heroic Hong Kong garrison, has been liberated from a Japanese prisoner of war camp and will be returning to Canada shortly.

Since Cpl. Ganton has been in the Far East his wife, Mrs. Cora E. Ganton, and their four children have lived in Prince George and at Sinclair Mills.

He enlisted at Port Alberni in September, 1939, with the 16th Canadian Scottish and was transferred to the Princess Pats while training In Victoria. Later he joined the Winnipeg Grenadiers and served in Jamaica before embarking for Hong Kong In November, 1941.

Only two postcards from Camp "S" in Formosa had been received by the family since he was captured. One curt message said only "I am well."

Mrs. Ganton is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Hooker, Dome Creek.

Birth Place: Big River, Saskatchewan, Canada. Father: Thomas Alexander Sandy Ganton. Mother: Mary Edith Robertson. Spouse: Cora Ethel Thorn

Links and Other Resources

There may be more information on this individual available elsewhere on our web sites - please use the search tool found in the upper right corner of this page to view sources.

General Comments

45 Months in Jap Prison was "Hell on Earth"

Life for L/Cpl. Stewart Ganton in a Japanese prison camp was 45 months of horror, he has written his wife here. He was a member of the Winnipeg Grenadiers of the Hong Kong garrison that fell before the Japanese in the spring of 1940.

"We are now in a Yank clearing station for ex-prisoners of war at Manila," he reports.

"Meeting the Yanks was just like coming home. They certainly are good to us. - Men are being sent home every day by air and boat so I hope I won't be too long.-They may hold me in Vancouver for a time for the treatment for my left arm, which stopped two pieces of shrapnel."

Rich food is causing him stomach trouble. Daily he receives "Three beers, 40 cigarettes, packet of pipe tobacco and four cigars, plus unlimited supplies of cokes, bars, biscuits and doughnuts, as well as three good meals."

Cpl. Ganton promises he will never leave Canada again.

"It will be paradise after this hell on earth," he declares.

End of Report.

Report generated: 27 Apr 2025.

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Additional Notes

(These will not be visible on the printed copy)

Service numbers for officers ("X") are locally generated for reporting only. During World War II officers were not allocated service numbers until 1945.
'C' Force soldiers who died overseas are memorialized in the Books of Remembrance and the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, both sponsored by Veterans Affairs Canada. Please use the search utility at VAC to assist you.
Some birthdates and deathdates display as follows: 1918-00-00. In general, this indicates that we know the year but not the month or day.
Our POW camp links along with our References link (near the bottom of the 'C' Force home page) are designed to give you a starting point for your research. There were many camps with many name changes. The best resource for all POW camps in Japan is the Roger Mansell Center for Research site.
In most cases the rank displayed was the rank held before hostilities. Some veterans were promoted at some point prior to eventual post-war release from the army back in Canada. When notified of these changes we'll update the individual's record.
Images displayed on the web page are small, but in many cases the actual image is larger. Hover over any image and you will see a popup if a larger version is available. You can also right-click on some images and select the option to view the image separately. Not all images have larger versions. Contact us to confirm whether a large copy of an image in which you are interested exists.
In some cases the References displayed as part of this report generate questions because there is no indication of their meaning. They were inherited with the original database, and currently we do not know what the source is. We hope to solve this problem in future.
We have done our best to avoid errors and omissions, but if you find any issues with this report, either in accuracy, completeness or layout, please contact us using the link at the top of this page.
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