Billy McWatters: Richard Nichol - A Hong Kong P.O.W.
Thu, Oct 24th 2013 at 12:00 am - 12:00 am
Club night with guest speaker
Rotary Club President Scott Elliot attended the District Conference at Ayr last weekend accompanied by Mairhi Trickett, Jack Swanston and Kathleen Stewart, Sandy and Jane Bannerman and Robin and Margaret Mason.
Last week's meeting had the the Probus Club Past President as the speaker. Richard Nichol gave an interesting and emotive talk of his early family life. His father John Bell Nichol, a Hawick man, left the town and joined the army just before the 1939-45 war in the Royal Artillery and was sent to Hong Kong. He met and fell in love with a local Chinese lass and, on their marriage, regulations said that he had to leave the army. He joined the Hong Kong Naval Police. By this time Richard and later his sister had arrived and early in the war Japan attacked the colony and Hong Kong surrendered. Things became extremely difficult but Richard's family managed to escape but their boat was captured and they returned to Hong Kong and incarceration in Rosary Hill Prison Camp where they spent the rest of the war under horrific conditions. In 1942 they were separated from the father who was taken by boat with 1816 other prisoners by the Japanese but, as the ship was not identified as a POW ship, it was sunk by an American submarine and only 500 survived. His father was eventually rescued by Chinese fishermen along with 200 survivors and handed over to the Japanese Army. He then spent the rest of the war in mining camps at Hiroshima and Osaka but, fortunately, was not at Hiroshima when the 'bomb' was dropped which ended the war. Meanwhile, Richard and his mother and sister had spent the war in a prison camp, his mother suffering many atrocities. Eventually, on Japan's defeat. they were repatriated to Liverpool where later they were reunited with his father. They returned to Hawick as a family and were taken in by the Nichol family and Richard now considers himself a Teri. Many questions followed after which Billy McWatters thanked Richard for an extremely moving account of his infant days.
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This Committee focuses on international aid and projects
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Hawick Rotary Club has been able to obtain funding for the restoration of the village's Polysport facility after it was inundated by floodwater
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