Ronald Taylor arrived from Britain in 1975 to work on infrastructure tasks which helped rework Hong Kong – the Island Japanese Hall, Tate’s Cairn Tunnel, the Western Harbour Tunnel and the MTR Tseung Kwan O Line and North Level extension in 2002.
Taylor’s three-year posting within the then-British colony turned a four-decade keep, and he’s now fortunately retired in his adopted hometown. But the most important spotlight of these years had nothing to do with civil engineering.
Upon setting foot in his new dwelling, Taylor signed up for an organisation much like the UK Army Reserves – then generally known as the Territorial Army – which he had joined again in London to offer pleasure outdoors his full-time job.
This organisation was Hong Kong’s solely absolutely indigenous reserve navy unit: The Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers).
Weekend warriors
The volunteer reserve existed from the early years of colonial Hong Kong till nearly the very finish.
It was based in 1854 to assist combat piracy, when a lot of the metropolis’s common British garrison was shipped to Crimea to combat the tsarist Russians. The federal government appealed to the five hundred European expatriates within the metropolis to kind a volunteer pressure and 99 of them answered the decision. Often called the Volunteers, this 99-strong group consisted of residents from Britain, Portugal, Denmark, Germany and Sweden and progressively welcomed native Chinese language into its ranks.
The unit underwent a collection of transformations all through Hong Kong’s colonial historical past and was known as to assist on completely different events as perceived threats got here and went.
In 1941 it performed a key position in battling Japanese invaders, preventing gallantly alongside models from the UK, India and Canada till the defenders made their final stand in Stanley. A complete of 289 out of two,200 members of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps had been listed as killed or lacking and lots of had been imprisoned in Sham Shui Po all through the conflict in dreadful situations. Some averted seize and continued the combat in China beneath the British Army Assist Group. Some others merely blended in with the civilian inhabitants.
After the conflict, the Volunteers took up a brand new title, the Hong Kong Regiment, beneath the newly-formed Hong Kong Defence Pressure, which included air and naval elements. With the naval part disbanded in 1969, the unit was reorganised into its remaining kind: a light-weight reconnaissance unit generally known as the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers). This lasted till September 1995, slightly below two years earlier than the town’s Handover from Britain to China in 1997.
Taylor was current on the regiment’s disbandment parade in 1995 when the part-time troopers and officers marched previous the Hong Kong Conference and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. Straight afterwards the unit was whisked again to the Gallipoli Traces in Fanling – now the PLA San Wai Barracks – for a remaining parade.
In his 20 years with the regiment, Taylor spent 4 years as a serious and commanded one of many 4 120-strong “Sabre Squadrons.” He later headed the recruit coaching squadron after which turned a liaison officer for former members.
Joseph Pau served with Taylor. He joined the unit as an unusual trooper in 1965, impressed by his father who noticed motion and escaped seize as a Volunteer throughout the Battle of Hong Kong. He rose by the ranks, turned a workers sergeant in Taylor’s squadron, and was promoted to main shortly earlier than disbandment.
Pau’s service was intertwined with a number of the metropolis’s most turbulent episodes. He helped confront rioters and defuse explosives scattered everywhere in the metropolis throughout the 1967 leftist riots, which he nonetheless describes as a “very troubling expertise.”
He was once more in motion once more 24 years later as he was posted together with his unit to deal with the Vietnamese boat individuals riot in 1991. Potential hazard was in every single place, he recalled.
“We needed to be very cautious in every part. We paid shut consideration to small particulars like every bit of wooden as a result of [detainees] may sharpen it into an improvised weapon. Every little thing generally is a weapon, even a toothbrush,” mentioned Pau.
Outdated glory in a brand new period
With disbandment approaching, members of the unit moved their veterans’ group, the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (Volunteers) Affiliation, to a clubhouse on the ninth flooring of the Comfortable Valley Racecourse. Pau is now chairman of the social organisation and lots of members are nonetheless in shut contact.
The unique regimental guidon, offered by governor Sir David Trench in 1971, remains to be on show contained in the clubhouse alongside plaques from different navy models, the unique Hong Kong Defence Corps badge, trophies and canvases depicting the unit’s historical past.
The home windows overlook the racecourse and luxurious residences dotting the skyline. To the left is the location of the previous regimental headquarters, which now hosts the Hong Kong Soccer Membership and a small backyard. A steel plaque marks the location.
Although now of their senior years, veterans’ reminiscences have by no means light. Taylor recalled a coaching train by which his band of weekend warriors efficiently outwitted the formidable Gurkhas, who had been tasked to storm a manufacturing facility constructing they had been defending. Because the Gurkhas ready to enter, they discovered themselves shooed away by a safety guard in civilian apparel. Annoyed, they complained on the debriefing after the train, solely to find to their dismay that the unassuming guard was one among Taylor’s senior aides.
Such mischief is maybe a shared expertise. Patrick Dunn, a TVB host who served within the regiment as a lieutenant, as soon as informed Apple Every day that he and his staff efficiently stole a 90 millimetre cannon from British troops throughout an train. Determined to retrieve the weapon, they needed to comply with Dunn’s phrases and gave him and his males the “purple carpet” remedy with a helicopter and an honour guard.
A long time after their remaining deployment, members of the regimental affiliation have shifted their focus to neighborhood service, resembling serving to out on the once-annual Oxfam Trailwalker, a charity sporting occasion that sees groups of 4 attempt to cowl 100 kilometres in lower than 48 hours. Their navy coaching allowed them to man checkpoints on 24-hour shifts, a lot to the shock of organisers and volunteers from different disciplined providers who operated for eight hours at a time.
Comparable resilience enabled Pau to hike up the Wah Shan plateau in Fanling yearly on a private mission. Subsequent to the unique Gallipoli Traces is a huge illustration of the regiment’s cap badge.
Often called the Hillside Badge, it consists of a large inexperienced diamond amid the tall grass. In between are two golden dragons going through one another, topped by the St Edward’s Crown. Below the dragons is a regimental motto: “Nulli Secundus in Oriente” – “second to none within the Orient.”
Pau would faithfully preserve this monument and trim vegetation regardless that the steep climb would take a toll even on a youthful hiker. Due to his efforts the badge remains to be seen from afar.
Passing on the torch
Pau has additionally had one other mission. Till just lately, he was the commandant of the Hong Kong Journey Corps (HKAC), the descendant uniformed group of the regiment’s cadet unit generally known as the Junior Leaders.
Although carefully following its predecessors’ traditions and actions, Pau needed to alter some coaching requirements to cater to this era of teenage cadets.
“There was as soon as a boy who didn’t train a lot at dwelling, and he slept by the day after a camp the place we ran actions continuous for twenty-four hours. His mother and father complained to us seeing him sleeping for that lengthy, pondering we’ve accomplished one thing dangerous to their youngster,” mentioned Pau.
“Since we’re now a charitable organisation, we have to be cautious as a result of the youngsters are completely different these days. There’s now much less bodily train, and we’ll be in bother if something occurs.”
In contrast to its pre-1997 predecessor, the HKAC features as an unbiased charity-based organisation. But, that doesn’t cease trainers and veterans from passing on their expertise and traditions to future generations.
Glancing from the extensive home windows onto the backyard the place the headquarters as soon as stood, Taylor mirrored that the regiment’s largest influence on society was its beliefs: that involved residents of assorted backgrounds and nationalities can serve the neighborhood no matter nationality.
Taylor lamented that this supreme is much less attainable in a society now bitterly divided. Had been the regiment nonetheless lively, it could be requested to carry out unpopular or delicate duties.
“The query of whether or not the regiment would have been known as out for the 2019 protests means, in some respects, it’s good that the regiment is [no longer] out there,” he mentioned.
The federal government has now largely distanced itself from the regimental affiliation.
“For previous annual dinners, our chief visitors had been all the time very senior, however now making an attempt to get anyone from the federal government to come back may be very tough,” Taylor mentioned. “Even on Victory Day or Remembrance Service, it’s exhausting even to have a senior authorities member lay a wreath on behalf of the federal government.”
But, he additionally thinks the change displays the kind of metropolis Hong Kong is – every part and something can evolve within the blink of a watch.
Each Taylor and Pau are assured that members of the HKAC, to whom they’ve handed on the torch, can protect the regiment’s legacy. a light portrait of Queen Elizabeth II nonetheless hanging on the clubhouse wall, they agree that it’s passing on historic details and traditions “as they’re” which are a very powerful.
“It’s about being truthful to historical past – not essentially agreeing to every part about it.”
Help HKFP | Code of Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact Us | Publication | Transparency & Annual Report
