COMING EVENTS

Below is a list of dates for your diary on what's happening in the Hong Kong & China Branch of The Royal British Legion.

Poppy Appeal - 9th November 2024

Remembrance Day - 10th November 2024

Remembrance Service in Hong Kong

In the busy commercial Central district on Hong Kong Island, there is a small hidden garden of remembrance located at St. John's Cathedral which is the oldest surviving Western ecclesiastical building in Hong Kong as well as being the oldest Anglican Church in the Far East.  Beside the Memorial Cross of the garden, a tombstone covers the remains of PTE R.D. Maxwell who was killed in Wan Chai three days before the fall of Hong Kong in the battle with the Japanese Armed Forces in December 1941.  The only grave within the Cathedral precinct, it is registered with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

On the afternoon of 4 January 2017, Dr. Liam Fox the first UK Secretary of State for International Trade laid a wreath on PTE Maxwell’s grave for remembrance.  Wreaths were also laid by Mr. Andrew Heyn the British Consul General, Mr. Kim Smith a committee member of the Royal British Legion (Hong Kong and China Branch), Mr. Derek Cheung the manager of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Hong Kong, Mr. Cowen Chiu the Patron and Mr. Simon So a committee member of the Hong Kong Ex-Servicemen's Association.  A service of remembrance was held and led by the Revd John Chynchen, Honorary Chaplain to the RBL.

The last post was sounded by a bugler from the Hong Kong Sea School and 2 minutes silence was observed during the ceremony.  A quartet from St. John's Cathedral provided songs for the service.

This is the first time since the handover of Hong Kong sovereignty in 1997 that a minister from the UK Government has officially attended this kind of remembrance ceremony.