大象传媒

Harold Clitherow Margrett was born in 1899 in Birmingham, the only son of Frederick Clitherow Margrett and Minnie. Minnie was the second wife of Frederick after his first wife died and there were already 5 sons and 3 daughters by the first wife. Harold's father, Frederick, was in a partnership in Birmingham producing enamelled slate mantle-pieces sometimes with oak or mahogony finishes.

Harold had been employed by GEC for four years when he married Winnie in 1925 and rose through the ranks to become an assistant manager in Southampton. At that moment, the company 'grape-vine' told him he was going to be offered promotion overseas. Before his interview at Head Office in London, he and Winnie had already decided to take it.

And so it was that in 1936 he and Winnie were on a steamship to Hong Kong for Harold to start his job as a Far East manager. In December 1938, Harold had a telegram saying that his father, by then aged 85, was dangerously ill. With Head Office agreement, an Imperial Airways flying-boat brought him home. The journey took a week since all flying was by daylight with a maximum flight of 500 miles and the need to land on water. The blessing of this was that there were overnight stops at Bangkok where Harold had dinner with his cousin Frank Margrett, (a goldsmith and supplier of a pearl necklace to the King of Siam) and also at Calcutta where he had dinner with the local GEC manager (Philip Margrett, his half brother).

On arrival at London on Boxing Day 1938, his obligation to report-in at Head Office and pass the time of day with company director Lord Hurst who had just lost his wife, nearly lost him the last train to Birmingham. He reached his father in time, but the doctor was unwilling to commit himself on how long his father would live. Taking his leave of his father, he returned to Hong Kong by 'plane to be greeted by Winnie at Kytak Airport with a telegram telling of his father's death. He continued working in Hong Kong as war was declared in 1939.

Late in 1940, he and Winnie were ordered to take a holiday, and, as the war made return to England almost impossible, GEC agreed to a trip to Durban, South Africa. After four eventful years, it was a well-needed break. Whilst there, instructions were received from the authorities in Hong Kong that European ladies would not be allowed to re-enter the colony because of the risk of a Japanese invasion. Most of us would have been very grateful for not having to make such a decision ourselves. Not Winnie, however. She knew the deputy governor's wife, and her ace card of nursing training, obtained a special permit to join Harold as he returned to work.

By November 1941, Japanese troops were against the Hong Kong boarders and overran the colony on Christmas Day. By nightfall, proclamations had been posted that all Europeans were to report to the main square the next morning, taking with them only what they could carry. Over a cup of tea after supper, Harold and Winnie debated what might be going to happen to them and what they should take. They looked round the company-rented house and selected a few clothes. Winnie said she resented leaving behind the silver tea service which was mother's wedding gift. Harold went out after dark with a spade and it disappeared.

They were interned in the civil prison for four years having a space under some stairs to set out their two cots at night or clear away to sit during the day. At the liberation of Hong Kong, the authorities arranged to ship ex-patriots back to England, and once more, Harold was reporting-in to Head Office. They gave him a year's compassionate leave..

Twelve months later in 1946, he was called before the GEC board and asked where he wanted to go to work next, presuming that after such an experience it would not be Hong Kong. There was a long stunned silence in the boardroom as his affection for and wish to return to Hong Kong was accepted.

Harold and Winnie jumped in a taxi as soon as they embarked at Hong Kong, and you can guess where they were going. But it was a shock to see their home of 5 years earlier. They had expected that all their possessions would be looted, but the house now consisted only of the walls, with every scrap of wood plundered during the war. But, yes, Harold had a spade! And he remembered where to dig. The tea service, black as pitch and with its ebony handle and knob eaten away, surfaced and was sent back to London to be restored.

For the rest of his life, Harold was able to treat guests to a cup of tea from a silver tea service that had escaped the Japanese in Hong Kong. He died in 1991 aged 90, at his home in Wonersh, Surrey.

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