Caught and tortured

Heroes Remember

Caught and tortured

On the 1st of July, 1943, the Red Cross appeared in Sham Shui Po and the Japanese were going to show the Red Cross how well we were being treated and so on, so they ordered us to go down and play soccer on the field in front of the Sham Shui Po barracks, great, huge field, and I was walking from my billets down to the field when I passed by the ration depot and all of a sudden I looked over and there were about three or four Japanese and one Chinese chap standing there and when I looked over, the Chinese chap pointed at me and the three or four Japanese chaps rushed over behind me with fixed bayonets and told me to go over to the depot where I would be told something. When I got over there, they, they didn't really tell me anything except that they handcuffed me and put me in the back and on the, gave me a little slapping around and a few little points with the bayonet and I was taken from there down to Jund (sp) Armoury Headquarters for questioning. But all this was a result of the truck driver telling them that it was I who was receiving and sending messages to the outside.

Mr. Routledge later took on a new and life-threatening duty of moving messages from the camp to contacts outside Sham Shui Po... and back again. He eventually is discovered by his Japanese captors. The consequences are terrifying.

Ronald John Routledge

Mr. Routledge was born September 1, 1920. His father, a decorator by trade, was a member of the Regina Rifles and served in the First World War. Mr. Routledge came from a family of four children. He had three sisters, one older and two younger. His father encouraged him to join the Regina Rifles Regiment cadet program when he was 14. After completing high school, shortly before Canada declared war on Germany, he enlisted with the Regina Rifles. He enlisted with the artillery but soon switched to the Canadian Corps of Signals and trained as a wireless operator. In October, 1941, he and 32 other members of the Signals Corp were told they were headed overseas. They boarded a vessel in Vancouver, not knowing until they were near the Philippines that they were heading for Hong Kong. They eventually arrived in Hong Kong and were assigned to barracks at Shamshuipo. Mr. Routledge was wounded when the Japanese made their first attack on Shamshuipo in December, 1942. After spending time in hospital, he returned to continue his service as a wireless operator. He was taken POW on Boxing Day after the commanding officer of the troops on the Stanley Peninsula surrendered to the Japanese. Following his release at the end of the war, he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM), the second highest award for bravery in the British Empire. Mr. Routledge remained in the army as a career soldier.