Ronald Holmes

His only brother, Captain Leslie Benjamin Holmes (1905–1941) of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, was killed in action in Hong Kong on 19 December.

He died at the age of 36 and left his widow, Marguerite Julia Holmes, of Ramsbury, Wiltshire.

Today, his grave can still be found in the Stanley Military Cemetery.

Sir David Ronald Holmes (, 26 December 1913 – 14 June 1981) was a British colonial government official who served in Hong Kong from 1938.

In the Second World War, he was assigned to the British Army Aid Group where he actively took part in a series of guerilla actions in the Far East to resist the Japanese Army and to rescue prisoners of war from the Japanese detention camps.

His contribution was recognised by the British government and he was decorated several times.

After the war, Holmes played a significant role in reconstructing Hong Kong.

Holmes was born on 26 December 1913 in the United Kingdom.

His parents were Louis James Holmes and Emily Sutcliffe of Brighouse, West Yorkshire.

In his youth, he studied at Bradford Grammar School and later graduated from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

He once served as an Officer Cadet in the Senior Division of the Cambridge University Contingent and was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant in 1935.

After the promotion, he briefly served in the Infantry Unit of the Contingent but retired in October 1936.

In 1938, Holmes was employed by the government of Hong Kong as a cadet.

At the time before the war, he was the Assistant Secretary for Chinese Affairs and learnt to speak fluent Cantonese.

In December 1941, the Pacific War broke out and the Japanese Army started an unexpected invasion to Hong Kong.

During the Battle of Hong Kong, Holmes belonged to the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong but was soon summoned to serve under the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

His major duty was to attack the Japanese army from the rear area.

However, when then Governor Sir Mark Young surrendered on 25 December, Holmes successfully managed to flee to the mainland China.

Thus he was not caught by the Japanese Army and was not a prisoner of war throughout the Second World War.

After fleeing from Hong Kong, Holmes finally reached Chongqing in early 1942 to unite with the British delegates in China.

Later on, he was ordered to drive (later Sir) John Keswick, the First Secretary of the British Consulate-General Chongqing, and the consulate's attaché, Brigadier Gordon Edward Grimsdale to Shaoguan, Guangdong for a special mission to discuss with General Yu Hanmou, the Chinese Commander-in-Chief of the Seventh War Zone about the feasibility of establishing a British Army Aid Group to resist the Japanese invasion on a joint basis.

Throughout the negotiation, Holmes worked as the translator for the British as well.

Shortly afterwards, Colonel (later Sir) Lindsay Ride, a prisoner of war from a Japanese concentration camp in Hong Kong, successfully made his escape and arrived at Chongqing.

As a result, Ride officially formed the British Army Aid Group in July 1942.

Both Holmes and Paul Tsui, a close friend Holmes newly met in Shaoguan, joined the group in November and were immediately sent to station in Dong River, Huizhou.

In Huiyang, Holmes was under the command of Colonel (later Sir) Douglas Clague.

He was assigned to deal with external affairs and to co-operate closely with the guerillas of the East River Column.

With the help from the guerillas, Holmes had organised a number of rescue plans trying to save the prisoners of war from the Japanese concentration camps and had conducted espionage in the Japanese-occupied region.

According to the recollection of Paui Tsui, Holmes and his companions once secretly entered Hong Kong and reached the foot of Lion Rock.

From the foot of the mountain, he used binoculars to spy the concentration camp far away in To Kwa Wan regardless the potential danger of being discovered by the Japanese.

Fortunately, although Holmes was a Westerner, the Japanese had never recognised that the fluent Cantonese speaker was in fact a British.

In 1954, he was appointed to establish the Resettlement Department, a governmental department which was responsible for constructing resettlement estates for the homeless refugees.

Later on he successively served as the Director of Urban Services, the New Territories' District Commissioner and the Director of Commerce and Industry.

In 1966, Holmes replaced John Crichton McDouall as the Secretary for Chinese Affairs but not long after, the 1967 Leftist Riots broke out.

During the riot, he was noted for taking control of the situation as the acting-Colonial Secretary, efficiently took command in the government and adopted a hard-line policy towards the Communists.

Holmes continued to serve when the post of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs was renamed into the Secretary for Home Affairs in 1969 and he eventually stepped down in 1971.

For his public service to Hong Kong, he was knighted in 1973.

Afterwards, he immediately became the chairman of the Public Service Commission, a post he served until 1977 when he left Hong Kong.

When Holmes was serving in the government of Hong Kong, he was also successively appointed as official member of the Urban Council, Legislative Council and Executive Council.

Among them, he had served for a decade in total in the Legislative Council.