Lau Tak Kwong was the brother of the subject of the previous post. The Captured Japanese Document1 that summarises one of the trials of resistance workers held on October 19, 1943, describes his ‘crimes’:
The accused LAU TAK KWONG was a fireman in the HONGKONG Gendarmerie. He is the brother of LAU TAK OI. About the middle of April 43 he was visited by LOIE FOOK WING2 who was living together with LAU TAK OI, and asked to help in espionage work against the Japanese on behalf of the British. He promptly agreed. Up to June 1943 he investigated and reported on fire brigade of the Gendarmerie and on the progress made in restoring various kinds of industry in HONGKONG. He also allowed his house to be used as a repository for various secret articles to be passed {to} LOIE FOOK WING.
The Captured Document gives his address as in the Chong Chin Ward, and his age as 38.
He was arrested for these resistance activities, probably in June 1943.
On a Sunday early in August, 1943 he was put in a cell (number 4) in Stanley Prison. His sister was put in cell 35 and John Fraser, the former Defence Secretary, were put in cells close by at the same time, so it’s reasonable to assume that, like them, he’d been previously held in the Gendarmerie in Stanley Village.3
He was tried October 19, 1943 as part of the largest group of agents to appear before the court that day.
The Stanley Military Cemetery Roll of Honour tells us he was the son of Kong Chat Koo of Hong Kong.4
He was executed alongside his sister and 31 others at Stanley Beach on October 29. In spite of what seem to have been his courageous and wide-ranging services I’ve been able to find out no more about him.
1Part of the Ride Papers, kindly sent to me by Elizabeth Ride.
2See previous post.
3George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 172-173.
4http://www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/Cemeteries/Stanley_Military_Cemetery/html/l.htm
The Dark World's Fire: Hong Kong in World War Two 