Five: Private J. Hoosha, Winnipeg Grenadiers, who was taken P.O.W. at the fall of Hong Kong

1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; Defence Medal 1939-45, silver; Canadian Voluntary Service Medal, with overseas clasp; War Medal 1939-45, silver, together with the recipient’s Canadian Memorial Cross, E.II.R., the reverse officially inscribed, ‘H-6076 Pte. J. Hoosha’, with bar suspension, in its case of issue, assorted Canadian Veterans’ badges and awards (6), including Canadian Legion Past Officer’s Medal, gilt-metal and enamel, with clasps for ‘Sgt.-at-Arms’ and ‘2nd Vice-President’, the reverse engraved, ‘J. Hoosha, West Kildonan, (Man. & N.W. Ont., No. 30)’, and another, with similar naming, with top clasp ‘For Merit’, and wartime ‘H.K.’ red uniform flash, contact marks and cleaned, otherwise generally very fine (Lot) £180-220

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces.

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John Hoosha was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in January 1912, and was working as a cook for the Manitoba Department of Highways at the time of the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939. Enlisting in the Winnipeg Grenadiers, he served for 16 months in Jamaica and Bermuda before being embarked for Hong Kong in October 1941.

What followed in the desperate struggle to defend the colony that December resulted in the decimation of the regiment’s ranks - one of its number, Company Sergeant-Major John Osborn, winning the Victoria Cross for his gallantry in the fighting on 19 December. For his own part, Hoosha was among those to be taken prisoner and, as verified by his War Crimes Office interview on being released in September 1945, he was witness to some of the more unpleasant aspects of Japanese hospitality - thus mention of him seeing Major Atkinson and Captain Norris being beaten and kicked, in addition to a Medical Orderly.

Awarded Can. $81 in respect of loss of personal possessions while a P.O.W., including his gold signet ring and wrist watch, Hoosha was discharged back in Winnipeg in April 1946; sold with copied service papers and P.O.W. correspondence, including a copy of his War Crimes Office interview.