Dr. Reid was a Saint!

Heroes Remember

Dr. Reid was a Saint!

Transcript

When we were first taken prisoner, we were all in healthy shape, we were all healthy men, and we were a tough bunch of guys, especially us Canadian guys. And it didn't take, only a few months and we started, guys started getting sick and we had a medical officer there, Dr. Reid. He was a saint. The guys had to have, it was a sick parade. They have to go and see Dr. Reid. Dr. Reid had no medical supplies, nothing. But as I said, he was a saint. And there's a big line up to see this man and here we're starting to get, you know, losing our weight, we were all, you know, our ribs were starting to show and we were all hungry and we were sick. We had a lot of disease, going from the type of food we were on to something entirely different that, you know, not even Orientals would live on what they were feeding us. Poor Dr. Reid, I don't know how he managed it, but what he'd say, he had a sympathetic voice, for you, for me and for each and every one of us. And what could the doctor say? Go back to your hut, and lay down and drink lots of water. The next guy come up, what did he do? Go down, go back to your hut, lay down and drink lots of water. I wonder how many hundreds and hundreds of times Dr. Reid said that, that was his prescription. What else could he do? He never had nothing. As I say, the man was a saint, he was wonderful, you know. What he did for the guys. But the way he talked to you and pulled you through, he made you pull up by your boot straps.

Description

Mr. Flegg credits their regimental doctor, Dr. Reid, with helping many of the men through their prison ordeal. Despite having no medical supplies, his kind and sympathetic treatment of the inmates makes him a saint in Mr. Flegg's opinion.

Aubrey Flegg

Aubrey Flegg was born on October 18, 1917 in Welland, Ontario. His father moved the family to Northern British Columbia when he was three. Mr. Flegg describes living on a “stump farm”, and working from a very early age. Leaving home at sixteen, he trapped in winter and felled timber during warmer months. Mr. Flegg was married with a young family when the war started, but he enlisted out of patriotic duty. He joined Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry, and later reinforced the Winnipeg Grenadiers, thinking he would be going to Europe. Instead, Mr. Flegg found himself trying to defend Hong Kong from the Japanese against overwhelming odds. Imprisoned for four years, he survived the ravages of disease, starvation, abuse and forced labor in both North Point and Sham Shui Po Camps and the Oyama mines. Mr. Flegg offers an impassioned story of the Hong Kong experience.

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