Liverpool commemorates Chinese wartime sailors with new markers

New gravestones will be erected to mark the British burial sites of 31 Chinese sailors who served on Dutch ships during World War II.

The mariners were laid to rest in Liverpool's Anfield Cemetery between 1942 and 1945 and the Dutch War Graves Commission paid for headstones to be installed in the 1950s. Only six remain today.

Roel Broer, deputy director-general of the Dutch War Graves Commission, has arranged for replacement headstones to be unveiled at a ceremony on Nov 27.

Broer said he hopes the ceremony will attract the attention of historians and relatives who may have information about the sailors' histories.

"Being involved in war graves, I see the impact that World War II still has on people," Broer said. "It's important that these men are remembered."

During the war, Liverpool served as an important port for the allies, including the Dutch. The sailors served on several ships, and death certificates indicate that many of them died from illnesses, including tuberculosis, thrombosis, cancer and bronchitis.

Most of the men served as stokers or in other roles in the engine room while some worked as cooks in the galleys.

Differing translations of Chinese sounds by the Dutch and British authorities mean the sailors' names were often spelled incorrectly in documentation.

Many of the death certificates do not list birthplaces, though at least eight of the men were born in the same village, listed as Ting Tow Si Pien, near Fuzhou, the capital of Southeast China's Fujian province.

Wong Yeung, who died of tuberculosis at Liverpool's Walton Hospital in 1943, served on the MV Macuba, a ship built by Shell Tankers Rotterdam in 1931. In 1942, the Macuba's crew rescued 49 sailors from the wreckage of the West Ira, a United States cargo vessel. The West Ira sank 220 kilometers southeast of Barbados after being torpedoed by a German submarine.

Broer said it is likely that several of the Chinese sailors joined the Dutch ships in Indonesia, a former Dutch colony.

"We don't know too much about these specific sailors, but a lot of men in Asia joined these merchant navy vessels in Indonesia," Broer said.

Documents indicate this may have been the case for at least one of the sailors. Chan Choy, also listed as Chan Chor, died of thrombosis at the age 58 in 1945. The mariner worked as a cook on the HMHS Tjitjalengka. The ship provided a transport link between Indonesia and Japan before being converted into a hospital ship during the war.

The ceremony in November will be attended by representatives from the UK Chinese Freemason Association, the Liverpool Chinatown Business Association, the Society for Anglo Chinese Understanding, and other members of Liverpool's sizeable Chinese community.