My Great Uncle Jimmy (James Alfred Maynard) was my Nan’s younger brother. He was born in Lambeth, South London and was the only son of James Frederick Maynard and Ellen Alice Maynard.

Jimmy's father went away to fight in the 1st World War and sadly never returned. He was killed in action 6th December 1917 aged just 26 years old, so my Nan & Jimmy never knew their father and had no memories of him. Eventually, their mother remarried and had 5 more daughters with her new husband. My Nan & Jimmy’s step-father was very strict with them, especially Jimmy, who was the only boy.

My Nan used to talk to me a lot about Jim when I was a child and recalled her & Jimmy asking about their father when they were growing up, what he was like and how did he look? But their mother always said it was a long time ago and she didn’t remember. They thought she said this to them rather than upset their step-father.

When Jimmy left school, he and his good friend went to work as shop assistants for a local company. When they were 18 years old they joined up for the Regular Army at the recruiting office on 22nd August 1933.

On the day Jimmy left home, my Nan sat on the end of his bed crying while he packed his bag and she pleaded with him not to go. They talked about how difficult things had become for them at home with their step-father and Jimmy insisted that he didn’t feel he could stay any longer. My Nan said to him “If I was a man I’d come with you” to which Jimmy replied “If you were a man I’d take you with me, but someone needs to stay here and look after mum and the girls.”

Jimmy kept in touch with his mum and sisters with regular letters, but rarely came home on leave. Once he had left he didn’t want to make things difficult for them by returning and upsetting his step-father.

Jimmy was with the 1st Battalion Middlesex Regiment throughout his 9 year army career and his army records show he served in Egypt and Singapore, before being posted to Hong Kong in August 1937.

Jimmy was taken prisoner during the Fall of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941. He boarded the Lisbon Maru on 27th September and went on to lose his life during the sinking of the Lisbon Maru aged just 27 years old.

Private James Maynard was awarded the 1939-1945 Star, Pacific Star, Defence Medal and War Medal 1939-1945.

My Nan never got over losing her baby brother, but fortunately for me she shared his story and talked of him often to me while I was growing up. She lost her father in the First World War and her brother (Jimmy) and husband (my grandfather) during the Second World War. All three of them lost away from home, her & Jim’s father buried in Belgium, her husband buried in the Netherlands and her baby brother remembered in Hong Kong.

We do not know what happened to Jimmy’s letters and war medals, or their father’s photos, letters and war medals. But we do know that their step-father could be a jealous man with a temper, so we assume that their mother inadvertently “lost” these items, rather than upset her second husband.

After the war, when things had settled down at home, Jimmy’s friend came to see my Nan and her mum. He told them of his sadness and his despair at losing his best friend during the Lisbon Maru incident. He told them that during the sinking he had managed to get free, he searched as much as he could on the sinking ship calling out Jimmy’s name and shouting out on the decks and into the holds “Has anybody seen Jimmy Maynard!”

He said that it was chaos on board and eventually, he had no choice but to jump overboard himself, while all the time hoping that Jimmy had also managed to escape. Sadly, he found out later that Jim had died in the sinking. Jimmy’s friend was recaptured and spent the duration of the war in another POW camp. I would love to know what his name was so that I could try to follow his life and see what happened to him, but unfortunately this, so far, has not been possible.

For years I doubted that we’d ever know for sure if Jimmy went down with the ship, or if he managed to get over the side and met his fate in the sea. Thanks to Major (Retired) Brian Finch and LiMMA I now know that he did go overboard and although he didn’t survive in the waters, in his final moments he was able to breath fresh air and feel the sun on his face and for that I will be eternally grateful. The last reported sighting of Jimmy was recorded as follows “Pte Maynard Last seen by L/Cpl Shore on a hatch cover quite near an island. He was probably drowned in trying to swim ashore." Sergeant Frank Waldon and Captain Christopher Man, who both survived the sinking, researched and recorded what had happened to many of the men. These details were in one of Christoper Man's collections of notes and are included in Brian Finch's Outline History of the Middlesex Regiment.

I am grateful to my grandmother for sharing her stories with me, and I am equally grateful to the people of Hong Kong, Zhoushan and China, young and old, who helped at the time and who have helped since to keep alive the memories of those who went through such terribly hard and difficult times, alongside them all those years ago.

I cannot express enough my feelings of love and gratitude at having the opportunities we now have to join hands across the miles and continue the friendship for future generations in China and in the UK. Who’d have thought that 30 years ago when I first started to try and piece together Jimmy’s story from a few memories and three photographs, which my Nan gave to me, it would lead to this and I would be a part of this amazing Lisbon Maru Family that we are today.