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Ho Weng Toh

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Ho Weng Toh
Birth: 21 March 1920
Ipoh, Malaysia (then-British Malaya)
Death: 6 January 2024
Pasir Ris, East Region, Singapore
Age: 103 years, 291 days
Country: MalaysiaMYSSingaporeSGP
Centenarian

Captain Ho Weng Toh (21 March 1920 - 6 January 2024), known as 'Winky' to his friends, was a Malaysian-born Singaporean centenarian and the last surviving Asian Flying Tigers, a group of World War II pilots who assisted a Chinese-American coalition in fighting the Japanese in Asia.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Ho Weng Toh was born on 21 March 1920 in Ipoh, British Malaya to Chinese-born Ho Kok Lim (a shoe shop owner) and Chow Kheng Sin, the first son after having six daughters. The Junior Ho later had five more younger brothers. They grew up in a shophouse in town.

Ho studied at St. Michael's Institution from 1927 to 1938. He led an active childhood and had a great passion for sports.

He continued his education at St Stephen’s College in Hong Kong, and had been enrolled into the University of Hong Kong prior to the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941.

World War II and flying career[]

Ho Weng Toh's studies were disrupted when the war reached Hong Kong. During the Battle of Hong Kong, things were uncertain and Ho wanted "insurance" for his soul and went to a French convent in Causeway Bay and asked a priest to baptise him.

Whilst Ho counted himself lucky, as the Japanese allowed them to stay in their hostels and provided them with beans, he and his group of four boys and four girl friends would meet daily to discuss plans to escape to Free China. However, they had no money. One day, they got a chance to meet Burmese-born Chinese businessman Wikipedia:Aw Boon Haw, who founded Wikipedia:Tiger Balm in 1918, at his Pagoda in Causeway Bay, and donated HK$500 to each of them.

In May 1942, Ho and his friends were told by the spies to gather behind Peninsular Hotel at 3 o' clock in the morning. Disguised in dark clothing, they piled into two trucks headed for the New Territories, bypassing many sentries along the way.

Upon their arrival in a small fishing village, they saw that it was garrisoned with Japanese soldiers as some children had told them they were coming. The ladies hid in a tall building while Ho, with a few other guys, acted as a decoy. They pretended to go up to a boat so they would think they were sailing away. The Japanese came up to the boat, armed with rifles and bayonets. After being checked by the Japanese, they quietly left the boat, met up with the ladies and quickly made the crossing into Free China on foot.

While in China, there were Chinese bandits roaming around. They said they would protect them, but still demanded what little money they had. We had no choice but to pay up with they money they received from Aw Boon Haw.

After a 3-week arduous journey, they had finally become student refugees in Free China. Ho stayed with a compassionate pastor, and survived for months on only soya beans and tangerines, and for dinner, on occasions, steamed rice with a single egg.

One day, Ho saw an advertisement calling for volunteer pilots to join the Kuomintang and decided to sign up despite his friends' discouragement due to his stature. He headed southeastward to Guilin for his physical and written examinations. With a stroke of luck, he passed.

The now 22-year-old looked for months for a sponsor to no avail, but the pastor he had stayed with arranged for Ho to meet a young brigadier-general in the Kuomintang at his home who eventually agreed to be his sponsor.

They gathered in Yibin, south of Chungking, where General Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang army retreated to after they lost the Battle of Nanking.

After months of training, Ho had been informed that he had been selected for further training in India and then America. However, as Ho only held the passport of a British Protected Person under the Sultanate of Perak, he wasn't a subject of the crown nor a citizen of Britain, so the passport did not allow him to travel to many places. The Chinese officials equipped him with a proper Chinese passport to allow him to continue his training.

After completing his training in India and America, Ho was assigned to the 1st Bomb Squadron of the CACW in Hanzhong, Shaanxi province. Ho piloted a B-25 Bomber, a plane called "Hey Mabel", and was part of a crew of six. He flew on a total of 18 missions.

Post-war life and marriage[]

After the war and the Japanese surrendered, Ho Weng Toh, now 25, was stationed in Hankou, Wuhan as an instructor.

Not long after the end of World War II, Ho was asked to join the war against Mao Zedong, but he declined, saying, "Fighting the Japanese was one thing, but not my own people".

He made an excuse to return to Malaysia to visit his family instead.

In postwar China, Ho became a commercial pilot with the Central Air Transport Corporation in Shanghai.

He met his future wife, Augusta, in Shanghai and spent three years winning her heart before she would accept him.

Meanwhile, the Communists were advancing in China and the Kuomintang losing the war. On one of his flights, Ho flew up to Manchuria and saw the evacuations of the wounded soldiers and families. He described his airline as an "emergency service".

When Beijing fell, Ho flew shuttle missions to Qingdao, dropped food and aid relief three times a day until the city was lost.

The Communists crossed the Yellow River and took Nanjing, Ho realised that Shanghai would soon fall. He and Augusta hastily got engaged and wed on 5 May 1949 in a simple ceremony without an elaborate dinner, with just a few of Augusta's relatives in attendance. On 19 May 1949, Ho and Augusta left Shanghai, flying down to Hong Kong.

Now in Hong Kong, Ho realised that he would have to decide on either Malaya or Singapore. Eventually, he settled on Singapore. The couple, now with a young son and daughter, arrived in Singapore in 1951 after Ho had found employment as a pilot at Malayan Airways.

In 1959, Singapore obtained self-governance from the British, and the family decided to become Singapore citizens. Ho and Augusta later had one more son.

Later years[]

Ho Weng Toh and Augusta raised their three children in the newly-independent nation-state of Singapore. He remained with Malayan Airways through the Separation as it became Malaysia-Singapore Airlines, and in 1972 continued flying with Singapore Airlines. Ho retired as Chief Pilot in 1980.

Ho's father lived to be 97 and Augusta died of lung cancer in 1977. At 97, Ho remained active with the Airline Pilots Association of Singapore.

In his last years, Ho Weng Toh lived a quiet life out of the spotlight with his son Fred in Pasir Ris, East Region, Singapore.

Ho Weng Toh passed away on 6 January 2024, aged 103 years, 291 days old.

References[]

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