Talk by Mr Bill Lake
On February 27, we were very pleased to have invited Mr Bill Lake, a War Historian, to present a talk to our S5 students. Mr Lake gave students a brief idea of Hong Kong during and after the Second World War, drawing reference to the book Gweilo (literally meaning “foreigner”), which is one of our recommended readers for S5 students. He also shared his personal experiences in relation to the author’s background and post-war Hong Kong.
Mr Bill Lake was enlisted in the British army in 1965 when he joined the Royal Artillery. He left the army in 1973 , and since then he has held a variety of different posts, one of which was an actor and stuntman in Chinese Kung Fu movies. He is a very involved member of the Hong Kong Ex-Servicemen’s Association (HKESA) and the World War 2 Veterans Association, and has been the English voice for the Remembrance Services for the last 16 years.
Mr Lake has been very involved in telling the history of the Battle for Hong Kong for the past 21 years. He has given many talks and presentations about the 3 Years and 8 Months of Japanese Occupation to schools, universities and museums. Last year, he finished shooting a documentary titled “Hong Kong: War and Peace”, which was shown at the 41st HK International Film Festival last April.
The talk was well received by all the students. They took notes and asked many interesting and pertinent questions. Everyone was enlightened by Mr Lake’s inspirational speech and eager to hear more of his stories.
