On a clear, bright, summer’s morning, August 15th, 2026, a small group of people gathered at the Hong Kong Veterans Memorial Wall in Ottawa to celebrate the 81st anniversary of the end of World War Two and to remember the 85th anniversary of a group of 1975 Canadians, known as “C” Force, who fought defiantly for 18 days defending the outpost of Hong Kong from December 8th until Christmas Day, 1941. Many of those who gathered were descendants of those soldiers as the last survivor, Hormidas Fredette, died in 2023 at 106 years old.
To see all pictures from the ceremony, CLICK HERE:
The ceremony was organized by the Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association (HKVCA) and mc’d by Ian Englehart. He informed everyone that this year’s ceremony, would honour Company Sergeant-Major John Osborn, the first of only 13 Canadian Victoria Cross recipients of WWII, who, on December 19th, 1941, willingly threw himself on top of a grenade to save others.
The Act of Remembrance was delivered by Debra Tang, and Mary Tang, barely able to see over the podium, gave the Commitment to Remember and was followed by Julie Carver who recited the Far Eastern Prisoners of War Prayer. Memories from the diaries of survivors were read by Rita Flanagan-Kuhn, Shannon Backlund and Chloe Kehoe which provided the soldiers impressions of the various aspects of their deployment, imprisonment, and coming home.
The defense of Hong Kong is a story of Canadians who were undertrained and were sent to a foreign outpost that Churchill had once described as indefensible. Its sole purpose, as an outpost, was to be a delaying action should the Japanese attack so British High Command would gain time elsewhere. These men were written off before the attack even began. Notwithstanding, the Canadian government sent a battalion of the Royal Rifles of Canada, a battalion of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, and a headquarters for a total of 1975 members, which included two nursing sisters and over 100 Métis soldiers (plus a dog if you consider Gander, a Newfoundland dog, who was the mascot of the Royal Rifles and died in battle at Hong Kong. He was awarded the Dickin Medal [a.k.a. the animals Victoria Cross] posthumously in 2000 for his deeds in that battle. His name is engraved in the Hong Kong Veterans Memorial Wall in Ottawa at the insistence of the survivors, along with all the other soldiers that perished in the defence.).
The numbers don’t tell the true story of what these men went through. Of the 1975 members of “C” Force, 290 were killed in the battle, 1685 captured of which 264 would die as prisoners of war. A total of 100 decorations were awarded to “C” Force including a Victoria Cross (Osborn) for their exceptional bravery and persistence. Some of those captured were used as forced labour in Japan, living in squalid conditions under cruel supervision with less than starvation rations. There is not enough time or paper to go over the Hong Kong defence and subsequent events but it is interesting and moving and readers should visit the HKVCA Website ( https://HKVCA.ca ), Report No. 163, Historical Section, Canadian Military Headquarters, “Canadian Participation in the Defence of Hong Kong” (https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Canada/CA/163-HongKong/index.html ), or search out other resources.
