The Vancouver Numismatic Society
The attached photos from 2006 show Bill Chow in his legion blazer and Burma Star beret and, in the same year, with fellow members of the VNS at the Thank-You Dinner for those who were volunteer workers at our annual coin show. He is between me and William with his eyes closed in anticipation of the camera’s flash. Very few of us knew about his wartime service in the clandestine Force 136.
As a military veteran, Bill was entitled to free training in the trade of his choice. He opted for watch repair. After learning that trade, he borrowed money from his mother and opened a watch and jewellery store on Vancouver’s West 41st Avenue in 1950. After several moves, he finally fixed on a location at 2241 West 41st Avenue, where his shop – now run by his daughter Elaine and son-in-law Hank Lew – still stands. In 1958 Bill married Lily Chin. They would have four children. In 1976 Bill renewed his military connections by joining the Royal Canadian Legion and the Chinese Army, Navy and Air Force Association. He served on the legion’s executive and chaired philanthropic committees, such as that for visiting sick members. He also helped administer an army cadet corps. As a veteran of the Asian War he became a member of the Burma Star Association. He and Lily lived in Kerrisdale and they attended dances at the local community centre. It was at this centre where he joined the Vancouver Numismatic Society. Ever the volunteer, he helped out with our annual coin shows at the Oakridge Auditorium. I once asked if Bill would come to UBC and speak about his wartime experiences to my history class. Lily, a very candid wife, said “Bill is a terrible public speaker” and recommended another veteran, Herbie Lim, as an alternative. Bill died in March 2013 and, when I visited him at the Shaughnessy Hospital’s Fahrni Pavilion at year or two before then, his mind was impaired. He sat silently in a wheelchair, head bowed, wearing his Burma Star beret. I also met his brother Park in the same institution and learned that he too was a military veteran. It was a sad end to an exceptional life that spanned 90 years.
Bill’s father had emigrated to Canada from Guangzhou (Canton) and settled in the coal-mining town of Cumberland on Vancouver Island. At first, his father worked as a miner and then the Chow family opened a general store called The Chow Trading Company. Bill was born in June 1922, one of the Chow family’s five children. At the age of 18 Bill left school while in Grade 10 and took work in Victoria as a truck driver for a wholesale fruit company. Canada entered the Second World War in September 1939 and, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, we declared war on Japan. The Japanese had swept through coastal China, and occupied the British territories of Hong Kong, Malaya and Burma. The call was for men to go behind the lines to spy on the Japanese forces, to engage in sabotage, and to organize and assist resistance movements.
The Canadian army had been hesitant about recruiting Asian Canadians, but the British army wanted men who could blend into the ethnic Chinese communities in South Asia and were able to speak Cantonese. That was the origin of Force 136, made up of about 150 Chinese-Canadian volunteers. Bill was one of them. After being trained in basic military skills in Canada, he was sent to India, where he was instructed in Morse Code and radio communications. He did not have the opportunity to follow others who were parachuted into the Burmese jungle. He was still in India when the war with Japan ended abruptly. Bill came home in 1946 and was discharged with the rank of private. His health had been damaged while in India and he spent ten months in Shaughnessy Military Hospital recovering from a lung infection.
THE EVENTFUL LIFE OF VNS MEMBER WING "BILL" CHOW by Peter N. Moogk