- Hector Bertram Gray
Flight Lieutenant Hector Bertram Gray of the
Royal Air Force , and member of theBritish Army Aid Group , was posthumously awarded theGeorge Cross for "most conspicuous gallantry" in resisting torture after the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in 1941. [ [http://www.rafweb.org/GC_holders.htm GC Holders ] at www.rafweb.org]He smuggled medicine into the POW camp to help the many seriously ill prisoners incarcerated there and was a conduit for news from the outside world. When the Japanese grew suspicious he was tortured and interrogated for six months but refused to divulge the names of fellow officers, such as Captain
Douglas Ford of theRoyal Scots , and Colonel Newnham of theMiddlesex Regiment . He was executed by firing squad, with fellow prisoners, on the 18th of December 1943 and buried inStanley Military Cemetery inHong Kong . He was born on the 6th of June 1911 inGillingham inKent . Notice of his award was published in the London Gazette on the 19th of April 1946. [ [http://www.gc-database.co.uk/recipients/GrayHB.htm George Cross Database Recipient ] at www.gc-database.co.uk]References
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