HKU Bulletin November 2005 (Vol. 7 No. 1)

and did not need to come back to the University as their degrees were accepted internationally. “Many of the medical degrees obtained in China, however, were not recognised by the British Medical Council, so the students had to come to HKU to finish their degrees in order to be able to work anywhere in the British Empire. “Gordon King was important again because he had to collect all the academic results for these students, process them and decide whether they could immediately be given HKU degrees or whether they had to do further study first. “He was a really great man. Almost single-handedly he ensured that HKU had a continuity from pre-war to post-war years.” King, who had first arrived at the University in 1936 went on to become Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 1954 to 1956. He then retired to take up the position of Foundation Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Western Australia (UWA). In 1965 he ret i red from the Chai r of Obstetr ics and Gynaecology at UWA and moved to the University of Nairobi where he was Foundation Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1966 – 69. “His contribution to medicine and the British Empire in the period of de-colonisation was very significant. And thanks to his records, and the generosity of his family in donating them to our archive, we now have a more complete picture of that turbulent time in HKU’s history,” added Cunich. Any readers who have materials (particularly the still-missing wartime student record cards) that they believe may be of value to the University should contact the Registrar, Mr Henry Wai. Missing Student Records Retrieved L ong-lost documents relating to one of the most unusual periods in the University’s history have resurfaced after almost 50 years. Thanks to the determination of Dr Peter Cunich, Head of the Department of History, the remarkable wartime efforts of Professor Gordon King, former Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1940–49 and 1951–54), will now form an invaluable part of the University’s archive. The documents detail the minutiae of the wartime degrees pursued by the University’s students who escaped into Free China after the fall of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941. “This is an important part of our missing student record,” said Cunich who went on to explain how the papers were recovered. “About five years ago I wrote to Gordon King’s widow asking her if she knew where these were. At the time she was becoming very elderly and frail and couldn’t help. So I’d given up on ever finding them. “And then when Mrs King died earlier this year the University was in touch with her niece, Mrs Patsy Toh to try and find the papers in Perth, where Mrs King had retired. “So with the permission of Professor King’s three daughters and Mrs Patsy Toh we have received a folder full of original correspondence relating to wartime degrees, the students who had appl ied for wartime degrees, the minutes of the committee that was in charge of wartime degrees and original correspondence between London and Chunking. “All of the materials, in effect, that Gordon King had used in writing his report about the medical degrees during wartime, but which had been lost to the University when he retired.” At the outbreak of war in December 1941 the University had approximately 600 students in four faculties – Arts, Science, Engineering and Medicine – many of whom volunteered for the University Relief Hospital. But by the end of June 1942, when the campus had been taken over by the Japanese, only 50 students remained. And nearly all of them fled to China where, thanks to King, they were able to continue their studies at Chinese medical institutions and universities. King, with the help of a guide, had escaped the territory via Kukong and Kweilin to the wartime capital of Chunking in February of the same year. There he set about helping the University’s students make the arduous journey to the capital and then placed them at appropriate universities to continue their studies. In all, a total of 346 students, more than half the student population, reached Free China. “Chunking became the nerve centre for HKU in China at that time,” said Cunich. King, who took up a visiting professorship at the National Shanghai Medical College which had been re-established outside Chunking, kept detailed records of HKU students on index cards. He included their names, which ones had escaped from Hong Kong, their method of escape, particulars of their academic studies, their plans for the future and the university which they ultimately entered. “A separate record was also kept giving particulars of the financial assistance each student received,” explained Cunich. “Sadly, these students’ record cards have never been recovered.” At the end of the war many of the medical students returned to Hong Kong. As Cunich explained: “Most of the engineering and arts students had taken their degrees in China by the end of the war PEOPLE Professor and Mrs Gordon King. 19 18