Sham Shui Po Barracks

{{Short description|British Army facility built in the 1920s in Hong Kong}} thumb|Canadian POW memorial

'''Sham Shui Po Barracks''' was a British Army facility built in the 1920s in the Sham Shui Po area of Kowloon, Hong Kong. The base was bounded by Fuk Wa Street to the east, by Yen Chow Street and to the west by Tonkin Street and Camp Street.

The buildings on one side were known as Hankow Barracks, and the other Nanking Barracks. There was a large parade ground. Smaller buildings were later added, and the large Jubilee Buildings were constructed as married quarters.

==World War II== During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army used the facility as a prisoner of war (POW) camp for British, Indian and Canadian soldiers. This was the main POW Camp in Hong Kong, operating from before the British surrendered the Colony, until Japan surrendered at the end of the Second World War. By the later date, it was the only POW facility operating in Hong Kong, bar the hospital at the Central British School (now King George V School). Many POWs died here, especially in the diphtheria epidemic of 1942, and all shipments of POWs to Japan left from Sham Shui Po's Bamboo Pier.

==After the war== In 1959, the military handed a strip of land within the base to the Hong Kong government so that Lai Chi Kok Road could be extended.<ref name="army">{{cite news |title=ARMY GIVES UP PART OF SHAMSHUIPO LAND: Opening Up Of Laichikok Road To Give Access To Cheungshawan |work=South China Morning Post |date=21 August 1959 |page=6}}</ref>

In the late 1970s and early 1980s the camp was used to house Vietnamese refugees.

The camp was re-developed for housing in the early 1990s. None of the former military structures exist and only plaques commemorating the POW camp remain, together with maple trees commemorating the Canadians held here. These can be found at Sham Shui Po Park, also part of the former base.

==See also== * Dragon Centre * Lindsay Tasman Ride

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== *{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SJERKhAdZg4C|title=Long Night's Journey Into Day: Prisoners of War in Hong Kong and Japan, 1941-1945|author=Charles G. Roland|author-link=Charles G. Roland|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press|year=2001|isbn=0-88920-362-8}} *{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YPO1HXdXYDAC|title=We Shall Suffer There: Hong Kong's Defenders Imprisoned, 1942-1945|author=Tony Banham|author-link=Tony Banham|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-962-209-960-9}} *{{cite book|title=The Girl in the Drawer|author=Dee Larcombe with Ronald Clements|publisher=New Generation Publishing|year=2020|isbn=978-178-955-906-4}} *{{cite book|title=The Hard Way: Surviving Shamshuipo POW Camp 1941-45|author=Victor Ebbage|publisher=Spellmount, The History Press|year=2011|isbn=978-075-246-064-2}}

==External links== {{commons category|Sham Shui Po Barracks}} * [http://gwulo.com/node/2886 Site of former Sham Shui Po Camp and POW Camp] at gwulo.com * [http://gwulo.com/jubilee-buildings Site of Jubilee Buildings, Sham Shui Po] at gwulo.com

Category:Barracks in Hong Kong Category:Sham Shui Po Category:Japanese prisoner of war and internment camps Category:Japanese occupation of Hong Kong Category:Military of Hong Kong under British rule Category:Military installations established in 1927 Category:Military installations closed in 1977