大象传媒

Just before Hong Kong fell to the Japanese, my mum Winnie Foster , along with her mother,Dina, younger sister and brothers were evacuated from Hong Kong. Winnie was fourteen years old. They were gathered up by the American forces, and taken to troop ships anchored in Hong Kong harbour. They left most of their belongings behind. Mum says she will never forget the sight of the harbour front lined with all the menfolk which were stationed there, many in tears, waving goodbye to their families. They were going off into an uncertain future, no-one knowing when or where they would be on dry land again and worse what the men they had left behind would be facing. They were crammed in like sardines and as the ship had not been fumigated, conditions were not good. Mum says that my gran Dina, as well as looking after her own brood helped other wives with young families to cope. The families survived the typhoons and threat of submarine attack and eventually arrived in Brisbane Australia and were well looked after. They spent some time in Coolangata. Mum made friends with Jean Lang and family. She still keeps in touch with Jean. Mum says she had a really happy time there despite the worry of not knowing the fate her dad, John/Jack Foster and eighteen year old brother Jack who were both serving with The Royal Scots. Uncle Jack had served as a boy soldier in the Royal Scots and went to Dunblane Military School. He came from Stonehaven were
he lived with his mum's family , the Pypers.
Eventually the evacuees were returned to Britain, sailing up the Clyde on a really cold May morning in 1942. After realising that staying in Scotland with Dina's family was not an option they travelled to Oldham were Grandad Jack's family lived. The family didn't get the same welcome from the locals as they had experienced in Australia, The sun- tanned foreigners were told to go back were they came from.

Footnote to this tale.

My Grandad was eventually released from a Japanese POW camp at the end of the war. He would never talk about his experiences except to say that he last saw his son Jack being taken away from the military hospital, by Japanese soldiers. Uncle Jack was working as medical orderly at the hospital. Grandad was there because he was injured. My mums family eventually received a telegram reporting my boy soldier uncle Jack missing, believed killed on Christmas Eve 1941.

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