By PHOEBE FALCONER
Trained at Waikato Hospital, Kathleen Thomson arrived in England in 1936 and joined the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service.
She was a matron at St Albert's Hospital in Hong Kong when Japanese forces overran the colony. Miss Thomson and her nurses spent the rest of the war in Stanley internment camp.
Conditions in the camp were unimaginable, with diphtheria, malnutrition and a shortage of medical supplies. The disregard of requests for items such as prayerbooks and the attendance of priests made life even worse.
The end of the war was greeted with relief rather than jubilation, because the prisoners were too weak to celebrate. Later it was learned that the Japanese had planned to shoot the prisoners only days afterwards.
Miss Thomson returned to England and eventually became Assistant Director of the Army Nursing Service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. She retired in the early 1960s and came home to New Zealand.
Her funeral was at the Chapel of Christ the King in Selwyn Village, where she had been a resident.
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