South Yorkshire Times – Saturday 24 October 1942

Prisoner at Hong Kong

Belated News of Wombwell Man

After a lapse of exactly twelve months to the day. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Jeavons. of 53. Blythe Street. Wombwell, have had news of their son, Mr. George Francis Jeavons (30), who went to ‘ Hong Kong as a servant of the Crown Agents, three years ago.

They have also learned for the first time that he has been engaged with some combatant unit. He is described as a Sergeant in the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps and is a prisoner of war.

The letter is from the Colonial Office. It states that a communication has been received from the British Embassy at Chungking enclosing a casualty list of members of the Hong Kong R.N.V.R., and the Hong Kong V.D.C., compiled from information received at Chungking up to the 31st of July last, and that in the list Sergt. George Francis Jeavons is included as a prisoner of war.

It also states that the list has been compiled from various sources and, while it is considered to be reliable, it should not be regarded as official.

Sergt. Jeavons is an old boy of John Street Council School, and for several years worked for Messrs. Johnson’s, builders, Wombwell and Barnsley. He left that employment to take a roost with a London firm, and at the outbreak of war was appointed an Inspector of Works under the Crown Agents at Hong Kong. In his last letter written a year ago he referred to the impending threat. His father says they had no idea he had taken up arms, but that was exactly what he would have wanted to do.

Sergt. Jeavons has a brother, Corporal Walter Jeavons (23), who has been at Malta for twelve months. He was in the withdrawal from Dunkirk. He also is an old boy of John Street School, Wombwell, and was in the building trade before joining the Colours In 1939.

Mr. Jeavons senr. served three years with Y. and L. Regiment in France in the last war.