Admiral Chan Chak KBE

This destination is to become the official familial website of Admiral Chan Chak KBE, my maternal grandfather.  For those of you who don’t know of him, my grandfather was a genuine World War II hero, who in partnership with the British navy, was the key figure to lead the incredible “Escape from Hong Kong” during the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in December, 1941.  Because of his leadership and heroism during the nighttime escape, he was later “knighted” by the British Empire (KBE) in August, 1942.

HIS STORY

On Christmas Day 1941, within hours of Hong Kong’s surrender to the Japanese, a group of 68 British and Chinese officers and men made a daring night-time escape by sea, breaking through the enemy’s encirclement and landing on the coast of mainland China.

Guided by Chinese guerrillas and fed by villagers, they walked for four days and nights through Japanese-held territory, before reaching the relative safety of Waichow (Huizhou), where they were welcomed as heroes.  The main party of almost 50 Royal Navy sailors continued their 3,000-mile journey by river, road and rail across China to Burma and India, finally reaching Britain five months later.

Descendents of the original escapees founded the Hong Kong Escape Re-enactment Organisation (HERO) in early 2009 planning to re-trace the escape route of their forefathers after Christmas Day the same year.

A special exhibition at Hong Kong’s Museum of Coastal Defence brings together for the first time written records, photographs and mementos of this remarkable episode.  Diaries, letters, uniforms and other artifacts have been loaned by the descendants of those who took part.  The exhibition explains who the escapers were, why they refused to surrender like others and how they came to be assembled together at Aberdeen on Christmas afternoon.  It goes on to show where the escape took them to and how they travelled; who helped them on their way; and how they eventually reached safety.

KBE - Admiral Chan Chak's Knighting Medal

KNIGHTHOOD

Admiral Chan-Chak Chaushek was granted the dignity of an Honorary Knight Commander of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire (K.B.E.). on 19th August 1942.  He was presented with the award by Sir Horace Seymour the British Ambassador to China at Chungking on 4th November 1942 on behalf of His Majesty King George VI for his services in assisting in the defence of Hong Kong and subsequent escape of a large party of high ranking officials to Free China.  This is considered the first act of Sino-British military co-operation against a common enemy in modern history.

For further details on our GREAT grandfather, visit this excellent site by Mr. Richard Hide, Chairman of HERO (Hong Kong Re-enactment Organisation on facebook):

http://www.hongkongescape.org/