Located just inside the Tropic of Cancer, it was usually very warm and humidity was 100% much of the time so, if careless, your clothing could rot in your wardrobe. In Winter 1965 the temperature dropped to 48° Fahrenheit which was claimed as an all-time record low! From Spring to Autumn frequent tropical storms, with heavy rain and destructive winds, were welcomed because fresh water supplies were a constant problem which the storms relieved. Both times I got prickly heat after I’d been in post 18 months.

There was lots of swimming and Shek-O beach was tops but Big Wave Bay and Repulse Bay were popular too, all three on Hong Kong Island. In 1958-1960 my barracks, Victoria, on the Island, had an open air fresh-water swimming pool. It was a treasure and very popular with troops and families of Hong Kong & Kowloon Garrison but in 1964-1966 it wasn’t available any longer. Restaurants were everywhere, served everything and many opened 24 hours a day - instant powerful memories of curried king prawns at 2 a.m. by the harbour in Wan Chai District!

The first tour I was an RASC Corporal with 56 Company RASC (MT). It was about 270 strong and most were locally enlisted drivers of Bedford 3-tonners, Land Rovers, Standard staff-cars and school busses. Coy HQ, B, D and E Platoons and LAD were based at Causeway Bay Camp, while A ‘Car’ Platoon was in Victoria Barracks, all on the Island. However C Platoon, around 65 strong under a Captain, was located in Whitfield Barracks, Kowloon. I served in Victoria Barracks except for my last 3 months when I was at Causeway Bay Camp.

The second tour I was a Sergeant RASC until July 1965 when the RASC was disbanded and I transferred to RAOC. My job was NCOIC Legal Aid Bureau attached HQ Land Forces Hong Kong, but my head office was at GHQ FARELF, Tanglin, Singapore. Again based in Victoria Barracks, my duties took me around the Colony, to Stanley Fort on the Island, to Kowloon, and to Sek Kong in the New Territories. I had a civilian clerk/typist to help me and, every six weeks, my senior officer visited from Tanglin for a couple of days, which was a situation in which I was never again fortunate enough to find myself.

I made several trips to Macau, a Portuguese Province 40 miles west across the Pearl River estuary. Hong Kong had 4 million people and Macau had less than a tenth but packed them into only 6 square miles. The Province was set up as a trading post in 1557 so was older than Hong Kong (1842) but Hong Kong eclipsed it in international importance so Macau resorted to gambling, tourism and the manufacture of Chinese fireworks. The only vehicles I ever saw were old British bangers. There were cheap and good restaurants and I always felt sad as my ferry boat took me away from the quiet little place, and back to the bustle, crowds, lights and noise of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was a wonderfully exotic posting where I had interesting and useful work to do and where I met loads of people, British, Portuguese, American, Indian, Pakistani, White Russian and of course Chinese. First tour special mention to Brits Jimmy Mullin, Ray Egan, Ray Bibby, Jack Fielding, Jim Wiesen and Lieuts Bob Allison and Tug Wilson of the RASC, Ken Wormall R Sigs, Dave Puckett, Bob Pollard and Eric Heaton of the RE, Tony Cross and Pete Whitaker RAPC, Cyril Orchard REME, and especially to Ella Cameron WRAC with whom I’m still in touch. Second tour Fred English, Malcolm and Keith (and wife Isobel) Hayward and Eric Haylett (all RAOC), Dave Patche R Sigs, Tom Holloway REME, Ted Larsen RA, Geoff Butler RE, Robbie Emerson (who I served with at HQ UKLF 1977/1978) and Daphne Heath (both WRAC) and Major Ridge Riley (ALS). And to Chan Fong Kuen who in 1958 managed to teach me enough Cantonese to get by on.