Signalman Hans Calvert (D/JX 229549) served in the Royal Navy during World War Two. Born on 22nd February 1916, he was the son of a bread server Thomas Matthew Calvert and Sarah Jane Calvert (née Lappin) of 42 Fortwilliam Parade, Belfast, Co. Antrim. The family later lived at Killinchy Street, Comber, Co. Down. Hans' brother served with the Royal Air Force in India.
He died on 2nd October 1942 aged 26 years old. At the time he was a Prisoner of War, having been so since the fall of Hong Kong in late 1941. He had served in the Royal Navy since 1940. The events surrounding Calvert’s death would go down as one of Japan’s most shameful acts of the Second World War.
After his capture at shore base HMS Tamar, he was one of many British and Canadian service personnel held in Sham Shui Po Camp, Hong Kong. Disease was rife, food was scarce and death was a common occurrence. Those who survived remained there until September 1942 when 1,816 prisoners formed up on the parade ground and boarded a transport ship. They were bound for slave labour camps in Japan on board the Lisbon Maru. The ship left for Shanghai, China on 27th September 1942.
Death at Sea
On 1st October 1942, the Japanese vessel came under attack from USS Grouper. It went down after a torpedo strike off Zhoushan Port. As well as 1,816 Allied prisoners, the ship held 25 Japanese prison guards and 778 other Japanese troops. Unknown to the crew of USS Grouper, Japanese officers held the malnourished prisoners in the hold making escape impossible. Around 820 prisoners drowned and those who had strength enough to escape found themselves shot in the water by their captors. Britain received the bodies of 748 men. Signalman Calvert was one of many lost in the wreckage of the ship.
Hans Calvert has no known grave. His name is on a family memorial in Comber Cemetery, Co. Down. His name is also on Panel 67, Column 3 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial, Plymouth, Devon and inscribed in the Comber Memorial Garden, Co. Down.