Hong Kong Cemetery - Types of Graves - Military Graves

Military Graves

As the name states, this category of graves for British military dead, spanned from the late 19th century until the early 1960s (when the Government of Hong Kong established another cemetery near Sai Wan for military dead in 1965). At the beginning of the colonial era, the British garrison force had the same problem as those in India: weather. Some of the members of the force could not adapt to the tropical weather of Hong Kong and died owing to tropical disease, while others fell during the Boxer Rebellion--mainly in 1900. At the time being, it is the major cemetery for military dead along with Stanley Military Cemetery

There are about 100 military graves of World War I--79 of them are in Hong Kong Cemetery, mainly the soldiers who died in Hong Kong and Kowloon Military Hospital, which received the sick and wounded from the German-leased territory of Tsingtao, on the peninsula of Shandong in north-east China. Evidence show that most of them are navy-related.

Before the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941, Britain had sent 2 battalions: Royal Scots and Middlesex to Hong Kong for garrison duty. And this cemetery provides evidence of the presence of these two battalions. Beside, there are 62 military graves of World War II--mainly from the year 1941

The British force at Hong Kong still used the cemetery as their burial ground until 1965. One notable military burial is Driver Joseph Hughes, a recipient of the George Cross.

Beside, there were two monuments erected by the Royal Artillery in memory of their fallen comrades, which were later moved to the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence.