HKO - Under the Same Sky 130 Years - Display Area 7
Display Area 7 : Trials of War - Dedication and Indomitable Spirit
Display Area Introduction
When Hong Kong fell to the Japanese on 25 December 1941, the Observatory was forced to suspend its services with the then-Director Mr Benjamin Davies Evans under detention at the Stanley Internment Camp. Despite the harsh environment, Mr Evans continued to maintain partial weather observations with his bare hands and simple equipment. These wartime meteorological data include information on rainfall, air temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind directions, and relative humidity among others.
A group photograph of the Hong Kong Observatory's staff taken in 1939.
Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Mr Benjamin Davies Evans, who endeavoured to continue taking and recording meteorological observations while imprisoned by Japanese forces at the Stanley Internment Camp.
Stanley Internment Camp during the period of Japanese occupation. St. Stephen's College is visible in the background. Photograph taken in the 1940s.
Hong Kong Public Records Office, Government Records Service
The first post-war Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Mr Graham Scudamore Percival Heywood. He survived four arduous years of imprisonment in the Sham Shui Po Prisoner-of-War camp during the Japanese occupation.
