POW Envelope: Sergeant Alfred Erle Eden Mawson, Winnipeg Grenadiers and Merchant Seaman Francis Smith

Envelope addressed to a Canadian POW interned in Hong Kong through the Japanese Red Cross. The text on the front reads 'H6167,/ Sjt. ALFRED ERLE EDEN MAWSON,/ Winnipeg Grenadiers,/ Taken Prisoner of War at Hong Kong,/ c/o Japanese Red Cross,/ Tokyo, Japan.' In Japanese there is a stamp to verify that it has been censored by a Japanese POW Camp guard. In the top left hand corner it reads 'Prisoners of War./ Service des prisonners de guerre.' On the back there is a note which read ‘Received Mch (?) 9/44'.

The envelope was included in a box of items collected in Hiroshima, 1945, by Merchant Seaman Francis Smith.

The envelope is addressed to Sergeant Alfred Erle Eden Mawson of the Winnipeg Grenadiers. Mawson was serving in Hong Kong when it was captured by the Japanese on the 25th December 1942. Until the end of the war Mawson was interned as a prisoner of war there at Shamshuipo and North Point Camps.

It appears that this letter was sent in 1944 from Canada to the Japanese Red Cross in Tokyo to direct to Mawson's camp in Hong Kong. The letter indicates that it was received in the same year and censored by a Japanese POW camp guard. It is unclear how Smith came to own this envelope, but it is possible that the ship he served on at the end of the war transported POWs out of Hong Kong as well as other countries.

Smith was a professional seaman before the Second World War and had joined the Merchant Navy as a Bosun. During the war, he served on several ships including the MV Macdhui and the hospital ship Manunda and he was said to be sunk five times.