Sham Shui Po Internment Camp, Hong Kong December 1941-1943

25 December 1941 - 18 December 1943

Five posthumous GCs were awarded to men interned by the Japanese after the fall of Hong Kong who were subsequently executed by them for their gallant resistance to Japanese occupation. Temporary Colonel L A Newnham, Acting Captain D Ford and Flight Lieutenant H B Gray were interned at Sham Shui Po Camp north of Kowloon, where Gray was put in charge of runway construction at Kai Tak Airport, which allowed him to smuggle drugs and news into the camp. Together with others they made contact with Chinese agents of the British Army Aid Group to whom they managed to supply details about the Japanese military. They were arrested on 10 July 1943 after plans for a mass escape had been discovered and were starved and tortured for five months before their execution on 18 December 1943 but never disclosed any information about the others involved or the intelligence gathering operation. As an Indian officer from a distinguished Hyderabad family Acting Captain M A Ansari was the object of Japanese attempts to use him to subvert the loyalty of other Indian troops. His refusal to cooperate led to him being sent in 1942 and again in May 1943 to Stanley Jail, in the south of Hong Kong Island where he was starved and tortured. In the prison camp he helped establish a system for aiding escapers. J A Fraser was interned at the Civilian Camp at Stanley, where he helped organize escape plans and intelligence gathering.