General Notes

Held in Singapore by Japanese in WW2.

Eight-Year-Old Derry Twins Who Were Jap Prisoners Eight-year-old twins who have seen more of life than most adults ever do. saw England for the first time on Tuesday and are expected shortly at the home of their grandmother in Garvagh, Co. Derry. They came all the way from the Far East on a troopship. Olivia Gertrude and Kathleen Margaret are the names of these fair-haired daughters of Mr. John M. Boyd. son of the late Mr. Alfred E. Boyd and Mrs. Boyd. Finvola, Coleraine Road. Garvagh Mr. Boyd was captured by the Japanese at Hong Kong when he was serving in the Royal Navy and a similar fate befell the twins. There with their other grandmother Nlrs. Kathleen M'Cormick, who had louked after them since the death of their mother at their birth. they were thrown into the notorious Stanley Jail where they were put on bare rations. They were detained in the jail for several months until the British Consul in Macao managed to get them away into Portuguese territory Then began the long wait at Macao until 1945 when their father. who had been wounded in an airraid pri•ar to his capture, was released. And now—at last—they are home, or nearly so. Mr. Boyd, who went to Hong Kong in 1928, served in the Royal Navy in both world wars. Between them he held a Government post. He has two brothers, Lieut.-Cclonel Ringland Boyd, MC., who graduated at Queen's University in 1941, and served in the Medical Service, and Staff-Sergeant William Boyd. His father - was for 37 years principal Jf Cullycappagh P.E. School, Aghadowey. On Chsisbnas Day. 1941, when the Japanese over-ran Hong Kong Island. the two little girls managed to escape on a passport faked by a priest ant. lived on a river-boat anchored in Portuguese waters. They were safe there until a Fifth Columnist lave them away to the Japanese who took them back to Hong Kong.