Page 127 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 127
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 127
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Although the Second World War had been raging in Europe since 1939 and the Sino-
Japanese War since 1937, the European community in Asia had hardly been touched by
either. In China they were regarded as neutral and so could go about their business quite
freely even though the Japanese were already in control of Manchuria and large areas of
northern China.
FAMILY - JOY AND SADNESS
GFA, Fanny and Leslie all attended his niece, Jessie Moore’s and David Bentley-Taylor’s
wedding on 4 March 1941 and, not for the first time, he stood in as “father-of-the-bride”.
Four days later his seven years with Butterfield & Swire ended. He and Fanny sailed for
Los Angeles and went on to Toronto to see Mervyn.
After 6 months, they returned to East Asia, reaching Singapore on Nov 5, 1941, where they
stayed for almost a month. So it was there that they heard the distressing news that Aileen
had died suddenly at Chefoo on November 13. She was 27, expecting her first child, and
it was thought desirable to remove her appendix. Allastair had just visited her in hospital
when she suffered an embolism and did not recover. She was buried in the CIM cemetery
at Chefoo, close to where her grandparents were buried.
August 1945. On December 1 GFA and Fanny flew on to
Stanley Camp celebrates Chungking, Chiang-kai-shek’s wartime capital
and, a week later, came the Japanese attack on
the end of the war. Pearl Harbour which turned existing hostilities
into a worldwide conflict.
Soon after Pearl Harbour the Japanese
mounted their assault on Hong Kong where
Leslie was now living. On Christmas Day the
Colony fell and Leslie was interned in the
Stanley Park Internment Camp.
In Chungking however, they received a false
report that Leslie had been killed in action and,
by the time they learned he was a POW and still
alive, Fanny was beginning to show the strain of
Aileen’s death and of Leslie’s supposed death..
At first they stayed at the CIM emergency
headquarters in Chungking, where Norman
Pateman, then General Secretary of the China Inland Mission, after observing GFA’s care
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Although the Second World War had been raging in Europe since 1939 and the Sino-
Japanese War since 1937, the European community in Asia had hardly been touched by
either. In China they were regarded as neutral and so could go about their business quite
freely even though the Japanese were already in control of Manchuria and large areas of
northern China.
FAMILY - JOY AND SADNESS
GFA, Fanny and Leslie all attended his niece, Jessie Moore’s and David Bentley-Taylor’s
wedding on 4 March 1941 and, not for the first time, he stood in as “father-of-the-bride”.
Four days later his seven years with Butterfield & Swire ended. He and Fanny sailed for
Los Angeles and went on to Toronto to see Mervyn.
After 6 months, they returned to East Asia, reaching Singapore on Nov 5, 1941, where they
stayed for almost a month. So it was there that they heard the distressing news that Aileen
had died suddenly at Chefoo on November 13. She was 27, expecting her first child, and
it was thought desirable to remove her appendix. Allastair had just visited her in hospital
when she suffered an embolism and did not recover. She was buried in the CIM cemetery
at Chefoo, close to where her grandparents were buried.
August 1945. On December 1 GFA and Fanny flew on to
Stanley Camp celebrates Chungking, Chiang-kai-shek’s wartime capital
and, a week later, came the Japanese attack on
the end of the war. Pearl Harbour which turned existing hostilities
into a worldwide conflict.
Soon after Pearl Harbour the Japanese
mounted their assault on Hong Kong where
Leslie was now living. On Christmas Day the
Colony fell and Leslie was interned in the
Stanley Park Internment Camp.
In Chungking however, they received a false
report that Leslie had been killed in action and,
by the time they learned he was a POW and still
alive, Fanny was beginning to show the strain of
Aileen’s death and of Leslie’s supposed death..
At first they stayed at the CIM emergency
headquarters in Chungking, where Norman
Pateman, then General Secretary of the China Inland Mission, after observing GFA’s care
