Below: William Humphries (left) seen during his service on HMS Capetown in February of 1937 at Wei-Hai-Wei. HMS Capetown was called to Hong Kong for a refit in July of 1937 but, due to the situation developing in Nanking, her refit was postponed and she proceeded to Nanking, arriving in August of 1937. Shortly thereafter HMS Capetown found herself trapped up the Yangtze by the Japanese invasion of Nanking and the erection of booms across the Yangtze by the Chinese. On September 21, 1937 she proceeded further up the river to Hankow and, due to the difficulty of supplying the ship there, the majority of her crew was evacuated by railway south to Hong Kong. Humphries was not evacuated but instead was transferred to HMS Bee which remained in the Nanking area.

Above: "19th Feb. 37 - WhW [Wei-hai-Wei]."

Above: The cruiser, HMS Capetown, had a two year tour of duty on China Station and my recollection is that she sailed over 200,000 miles during this service. When she became trapped on the Yangtze, a large portion of her crew was evacuated by train south from Hankow to Hong Kong and had a rather harrowing trip due to Japanese bombing. The image above documents the entire two year tour and I believe that "Capetown II - Spes Bona" (latin for "Good Hope", seen on the engine in the image) had been written on the side of the train evacuating the Capetown's crew, together with Western and Chinese refugees.

Above: The service record of William Humphries noting service on HMS Bee and HMS Cricket.

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