In 1964 I was a Sergeant RASC but, in July 1965 when the RASC died, transferred to RAOC. I was NCOIC Legal Aid Bureau, att HQ Land Forces Hong Kong, Victoria Bks, on the Island, and my job was to get details from soldier-clients of their personal problems (H.P. agreements, traffic accidents, matrimonials, UK adoptions, compensation claims etc). I relayed the info to my boss, Major M.T. Fugard at Army Legal Aid (Civil), GHQ FARELF, Singapore, and he advised the client by post or personal visit, if one was due - he visited for 2 days every 6 weeks! In time Singapore visits ceased and Major Ridge Riley, local courts-martial prosecutor, became my boss. We had a good work relationship and to encourage more soldiers to take up the service, I spent one day per month at Stanley Bks on the Island, at Whitfield Bks in Kowloon and at HQ 48 (Ghurkha) Brigade at Sek Kong.

I spoke a fair bit of Cantonese but some legal documents needed Chinese characters adding so Mr Yeung Chun Kow was my office-based clerk. He had several drawbacks and, when I found he’d written the combination on the wall beside the metal cabinet where personal case files were stored, he had to go. I was given a more security conscious clerk, Mr Ng Shui, then he left to tend his Sai Kung peninsular pig farm. His replacement, however, was 5-Star Khara Karnail Singh, a corporal in the TA-like Royal Hong Kong Defence Force (Volunteers) and later on, as my workload increased, I acquired Mrs Betty Lee as my shorthand writer/typist.

Adoption of local children: Previously Hong Kong’s Social Work Dept had helped soldiers adopt, then decided the “population’s increased affluence” and “decline in abandonment of babies” meant “children need not be removed from their natural habitat.” I knew from visiting orphanages the Colony was teeming with discarded bairns but would’ve left it if I’d not had a stream of adoption-hungry Army families. So I circumvented the policy by finding unwanted children through my long standing Hong Kong contacts, set up introductions with mothers and adoptive parents, and progressed a dozen cases through Court. SWD Director, Mrs Kwok, had to attend Adoption Final Hearings and wasn’t a happy lady. But some children had the chance of a secure and comfortable future and a few Service people were happy, too.

In Victoria Bks units I’d known before were still around, RAPC, Camp HQ, RE Postal etc, but I was surprised to find ‘A’ (Car) Platoon, 56 Coy RASC (MT), which I’d run as a corporal, now had a captain in charge. Not only that but he was Ian Michael Vaughan-Arbuckle, who I’d served with in Boys Coy RASC 1954-1956. I made a point of reminding ‘Buck’ of his failure to hit many a high note in our Trumpet & Drum band but didn’t mention his other nickname: ‘Eyeballs.’ The old NAAFI, Corporals’ Club and outdoor Swimming Pool had gone and been replaced by a 3-storey NAAFI which included a supermarket. Even though I bought an 18-carat gold-top Omega watch there in May 1964 for £35, I sorely missed the Swimming Pool.

I lived in HQLF Sergeants’ Mess, built into a rocky recess in the northern part of Victoria Bks but at ground level, so the Mess entrance was on Queen’s Rd Central. We walked up to Victoria Bks proper via 139 steps from the back of the Mess. The Mess was on 4 storeys, WRAC on the 3rd Floor, males on the 2nd, bar, patio, Mess Caterer’s office, TV and snooker rooms on the 1st, and dining room and kitchen on the Ground Floor. It amused me how Victoria Barracks’ four entrances, one at Wan Chai, one behind HQLF and two near the Peak Tram, were tightly guarded and patrolled during Internal Security exercises and ops, whereas the entrance to HQLF Sgts’ Mess was under the benign gaze of an elderly Chinese watchman!

Other Mess staff were Mr Wong ‘No 1,’ Mr Kang barman, and wash-amah Ah-Fong. Fellow Mess members: Geoff Butler RE, Colin Hand RAPC, RSM Jim Turner and Ted Larsen RA, Robbie Emerson WRAC (we met again at HQ UKLF 1977-1978), Eric Haylett, Ron Jarvis and Brian Saddler RAOC, Tom Holloway REME, Keith Reid, Charlie Spicer, Wally Auton, Keith and Malcolm Hayward RASC/RAOC, Dave (and lovely wife Brigitte) Patch R Sigs, Harry Snowling RAMC, CSM Joan Grimston WRAC, replaced by CSM Daphne Heath WRAC. Among the ladies I was friendly with were Sgt Christine Marriott WRAC Provost, Mei Ling and Nancy Chan. Then there was Diane Wong. I went out with Diane for 14 months and would have quit the army to live and work in Hong Kong but her father, whose tailor shop was in Hong Kong Hilton’s Arcade, sent her away in September 1965 to San Francisco to marry her cousin. I left Hong Kong in August 1966 on posting to HQ Berlin (British Sector).