John Douglas Haig Weaver was born New Southgate, London, the second son to Ernest and Sarah Weaver. Two daughters followed, Kathleen and Joyce.

By all accounts, John was the cheeky one, the charmer with a reckless streak. When he was sacked from his job as a butcher's boy, his misdemeanour was chatting to customers too much instead of swiftly delivering sausages and chops, he made the fateful decision to join the army. Like so many other young boys, he lied about his age using his older brother's birth certificate to enlist. Those recruitment officers have much to answer for!

He was shipped off to Gillman Barracks in Singapore in March 1936 at the age of eighteen.

Soon the 1st Battalion of The Middlesex Regiment found themselves stationed in Hong Kong at Sham Shui Po Barracks, where a jolly good time was had by all. Football, swimming, boxing, dancing and drinking were the general pursuits, and, of course, getting friendly with the local girls.

Maybe there was a little too much of the latter because by 1938 he'd met and fallen in love with a young Chinese girl, Leung Sou Kam or Goldie, as he nicknamed her.

As the world marched towards war, John's thoughts were focused on Goldie's safety and on what his mother would think of his relationship. Especially as the young couple (she was only eighteen) planned to marry. In the only letter his mother kept, found many years later folded inside a purse, he poured his heart out, pleading for her blessing, promising to "tell her all about it one of these days", and knowing that Goldie would face an uncertain future without him since "her people want nothing to do with her", after he had "ruined her chances".

They married on 27th of December 1940 and he made a home for her on Nathan Road, Hong Kong. This blissful state lasted only six months for, by June 1941, Goldie had left Hong Kong. She returned to her home town of Amoy where she stayed at a ladies' college on the small, almost tropical island of Gulangyu. The red brick building is still there surrounded by lush woods close to a sandy beach. We believe that John would have visited her there when he had leave.

Once more this arrangement soon ended when the Japanese Army invaded on 8th of December 1941 and the fall of Hong Kong saw John and his brothers-in-arms captured and become prisoners of war. For those who survived the brutal treatment in their former barracks worse was to come.

Boarding the Lisbon Maru marked the end of the road for some 846 men, including John Weaver.

He was shot while swimming away from the sinking freighter according to a former comrade and Lisbon Maru survivor who visited John's mother after the war. He was 24 years old.

We'll never know what John was like or what he liked, whether he was into photography, gardening, engineering, sports or if he could sing and dance. The only thing we know for sure was that John Weaver followed his heart.

Leung Sou Kam Weaver aka Goldie died in 1997 aged 75. She remarried and had one daughter but when her new husband found out about her marriage to John, he left. Her family took her back into the fold but during the communist revolution in the late 40's Goldie was blacklisted due to her relationship with a foreigner (John). Life was very hard for her, the only work she could get was as a private nanny. Her daughter, Wanchung, had 3 jobs as a young girl in order for them both to survive.

Despite this and the old stigma, Wanchung stepped forward when an appeal went out to "Find Leung Sou Kam". Our two families have connected, we've visited each other's homes and the two nieces that John never knew even stayed on the beautiful island of Gulangyu, where Goldie's family home had once been.