Individual Report: X83 John SUTCLIFFE

Rank:	First Name:	Second Name:
General Information
Lieutenant Colonel	John	Louis Robert
From:	Enlistment Region:	Date of Birth (y-m-d):
Fort Garry MB	Manitoba	1896-08-29
Appointment:	Company:	Platoon:
Commanding Officer	Bn HQ

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

No wounds recorded.

Hospital Information

Name of hospital	Date of admission	Date of discharge	Comments	Reference
HK-BMH	03/02/1942	04/06/1942	Died while in hospital	118

POW Camps

Camp ID	Camp Name	Location	Company	Type of Work	Arrival Date	Departure Date
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 Apr 06

Commemorative Feature

A map detailing the location of this feature can be found in this soldier's vault. (See Vault explanation below in the Links and Other Resources block) .

Site Description	Location	Province	Map Reference	Lat/Long	Date
Sutcliffe Lake	south of Crowduck Lake, Manitoba	Manitoba	52 L/03	50 03' 16"; 95 16' 13"	1973

Other Military or Public Service

Colonel Sutcliffe enlisted in the first Great War on his birthday, Aug. 29. 1914, and as a member of the Fort Garry Horse went overseas with the 6th Battalion. He went to France with the Royal Canadian Dragoons and after seven months service was commissioned in the Imperial Arms. He was in command of British rearguard at Baku Russia, with only a small handful of men who were almost out of ammunition but he successfully protected the main body's withdrawal.

Death and Cemetery Information

Date of Death (y-m-d)	Cause of Death	Death Class
1942-04-06	Beri Beri Anaemia and dysentry	Died while POW
Cemetery Location	Cemetery	Grave Number	Gravestone Marker
Cape Collinson Road Chai Wan Hong Kong China	Sai Wan War Cemetery	VIII. F. 12.	NA

Gravestone Image

Obituary / Life Story

Winnipeg, May 1 (CP). Winnipeg tonight mourned the death Lieutenant Colonel John Louis Robert Sutcliffe, 44, Officer Commanding the Winnipeg Grenadiers and Commander of all Canadian Forces at Hong Kong before its fall Dec. 25, 1941.
Born in Yorkshire, England, Colonel Sutcliffe enlisted in the first Great War on his birthday, Aug. 29. 1914, and as a member of the Fort Garry Horse went overseas with the 6th Battalion. He went to France with the Royal Canadian Dragoons and after seven months service was commissioned in the Imperial Arms. He was in command of British rearguard at Baku Russia, with only a small handful of men who were almost out of ammunition but he successfully protected the main body's withdrawal.
After the war he returned here and became a civil servant in the Comptroller-General's Department where he became an assistant accountant. In 1930 he was appointed chief clerk and accountant of the Mines Branch prior to the transfer of natural resources to the Province from the Dominion.
He volunteered for active service In the present war on Sept. 5, 1939 and went to Jamaica with the Grenadiers before the unit was ordered to Hong Kong. He succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel O. M. M. Kay as commanding officer before leaving here for Hong Kong last October.
Besides his widow, survivors Include a son, Aircraftman Lt. D. Sutcliffe of the Royal Canadian Air Force, now stationed near Moncton, NB, and a daughter, Joan, a nurse-in-training here, Mrs. H. M. Bladworth of Montreal is a sister.
unknown Winnipeg Newspaper

CANADIAN OFFICER DIES AT HONG KONG
Lt.-Col. John L. R. Sutcliffe, Winnipeg, Passes While Prisoner
OTTAWA, May 1- (CP) Lt.-Col. John L. R. Sutcliffe, Officer Commanding the 1st Battalion of the Winnipeg Grenadiers at Hong Kong, has died of illness while a prisoner of war, Defense Minister Ralston announced today.
The information reached National Defense Headquarters here in a message from the International Red Cross at Geneva.
The date of Col. Sutcliffe's death was not stated and Col. Ralston said further details are being awaited. Col. Sutcliffe was Senior Battalion Commander with the Canadians at Hong Kong. He took over command of the Canadian contingent after Brig. J. K. Lawson of Ottawa, Brigade Commander, and Col. Patrick Hennessy of Ottawa, second in command, were killed by Japanese shellfire.
Col. Sutcliffe carried on with the remaining Canadian forces until the British garrison in the Far East colony was compelled to capitulate to superior numbers of Japanese last Christmas Day.
Canada's Hong Kong contingent numbered 1,985 officers and men, mostly members of the Winnipeg Grenadiers and Quebec Royal Rifles. The Japanese have reported that 1,689 Canadians were taken prisoner when Hong Kong fell. On this basis it has been assumed officially that 296 members of the Canadian contingent lost their lives in the Hong Kong fighting or are missing.
Fate of individual Canadians in the Hong Kong defense force is known only in a few isolated cases. Several have been listed previously by the National Defense Department as having died while prisoners of the Japanese.
CAUSE NOT KNOWN
Cause of Col. Sutcliffe's death is not known. However, it was recalled that only last Wednesday, in a return tabled in the House of Commons, T. L. Church (Con, Toronto-Broadview) was told that the food situation at Hong Kong and Kowloon where Canadians are held is "unsatisfactory," and that medical services and hospitalization there are "inadequate."
This information was based on reports received by the Government.
Staple diet of the prisoners and internees at Hong Kong and Kowloon was said to be "soup and rice." Representatives of the Argentine Government - until recently Canada's protecting power in relations with Japan - made requests to the Japanese Government for permission to visit Hong Kong, but that permission was refused.
The Canadian contingent of 1,985 officers and men sailed from Canada at the end of October last year and reached Hong Kong in the middle of November. Only a few weeks later Japan entered the war.
Sir Lyman Duff, Chief Justice, recently completed a Royal Commission inquiry into the dispatch of Canadian troops to Hong Kong. His report is expected to be issued in the near future.
Unknown Newspaper clipping

This SAI WAN MEMORIAL honours over 2000 men of the land forces of the British Commonwealth and Empire who died in the defence of Hong Kong during the Second World War. The SAI WAN MEMORIAL is in the form of a shelter building 24 metres long and 5.5 metres wide. It stands at the entrance to Sai Wan Bay War Cemetery, outside Victoria, the capital of Hong Kong. From the semi-circular forecourt, two wide openings lead to the interior of the building. The names are inscribed on panels of Portland stone. The dedicatory inscription reads:

1939 - 1945 The officers and men whose memory is honoured here died in the defence of Hong Kong in December 1941 and in the ensuing years of captivity and have no known grave.

The northern side of the Memorial is open and four granite piers support the copper roof. From a commanding position 305 metres above sea level, it looks out over the War Cemetery where some 1,500 men lie buried, and across the water to Mainland China - a magnificent view of sea and mountains.

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

Hong Kong Fate Stirs Manitoba By Dick Sanburn
More than 1,000 Manitoba families, most of them In Winnipeg, are tensely watching the Battle of Hong Kong.
For the Winnipeg Grenadiers, a strictly Manitoba battalion, is part of the garrison stubbornly blocking the Japanese drive to control the island fortress.
Censorship regulations relaxed Monday to permit official announcement that the Winnipeg Grenadiers (M.G.) are in Hong Kong.
Until then, reference by name to the battalion as being among the Hong Kong troops had been prohibited. Rules were relaxed when it was intimated that some Grenadiers may have been taken prisoner and no purpose would longer be by keeping the unit's identity secret.
The Grenadiers who have already served In the West Indies on garrison duties in the war, are fighting side by side with British and Indian troops.
Evven the Japs have paid tribute to teh sturdiness of this Empire force.

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.
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