0/7241 Telegraphist Murdo Stewart, RNR, 11/10/1920-10/10/1942.

The story of Murdo Stewart is a difficult one to pin down.  He was part of a group of communications specialists who volunteered for service in the UK. They travelled on the HMAS Canberra but were dropped off at Singapore then taken to Hong Kong in a Chinese freighter.  While en route their ship was warned of a large Japanese convoy (possibly en route for the invasion of Malaya) approaching - 70 ships with a large naval escort - and changed course to avoid it.  The convoy found them however, and Japanese naval pilots practised their bombing and strafing runs on the old Chinese ship, in preparation for the real thing.

They arrived at Hong Kong the day before the Japanese invasion, an operation begun as soon as the news of the Pearl Harbour attack reached the waiting Japanese forces.  Defences crumbled quickly and chaos soon reigned.  The Navy telegraphists were given the task of taking portable sets into the hills for the soldiers holding out there but the garrison surrendered before they set out.

Murdo Stewart approached his 22nd birthday in the hold of the Lisbon Maru, a Japanese freighter carrying 700 Japanese troops and 1816 prisoners of war.  The POWs were held in appalling conditions, 75% of them were suffering various illnesses after a year in captivity and all were badly overcrowded - each man had 45cm of space.

The US submarine Grouper hit the ship with a torpedo - the fourth of a salvo of four - at 7am on October 1.  The Japanese troops were taken off, prisoners ordered into the hold, a machine gun set up on deck and the hatches battened down as the ship began to list and sink.  After 24 hours the ship's condition was worsening and the prisoners who were capable of physical effort broke through the hatch covers.  The first who emerged were shot but eventually enough men got on deck to overpower the guards.

Prisoners tried to swim to the nearby Japanese ships.  Many were killed by rifle fire from those ships - some who reached them were pulled aboard, shot, and their bodies dumped overboard.  Some were rescued by other Japanese ships and 338 by local Chinese fishermen who risked their lives to do so.

Murdo Stewart survived the sinking of the Lisbon Maru but died nine days later.  His fellow signaller, Ross Lynneberg, helped to bury him near Kyushu, Japan.

PERSONAL

Mr and Mrs R. A. Mackie, of Maori Hill, have received two postcards from their son, Captain J. B. Mackie, who is a prisoner of war in Borneo. He reports that he is well. Mr and Mrs J. Stewart, of 8 Chester street, North-East Valley, have received a card from their son, Telegraphist Murdo Stewart, who is a prisoner of war in Hongkong. He stated that he was well and was being transferred from Hongkong.  -Otago Daily Times, 11/1/1945.

PERSONAL

 Mr and Mrs J. Stewart, of 8 Chester street, North-east Valley, have received advice that their son, Telegraphist Murdo Stewart, has been unofficially presumed dead.  Otago Daily Times, 25/10/1945.

Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.

For the account of the Naval signalmen on Hong Kong, I am indebted to the RNZN Communicators' Association blog with the oral history from Signalman Ross Lynneberg, a survivor of the Lisbon Maru.  His experience on Hong Kong was not shared by Murdo Stewart - he met him again in the POW camp after the surrender - but it is indicative of the chaos of the invasion of Hong Kong.