An English man sharing a marvelous connection of England and Taiwan.
In late 2019, an English friend of mine, David Edwards, from Southampton England paid a second visit to Taiwan but it was his first time in greater Taipei with his wife Cora he met in Hong Kong during his army career decades ago. David is a retiree from his former Accountant career in Revenue English Army and is very interested in war time history of England. He also has participated extensively with the stamp collection in the Southampton Philatelic Society as his retirement pastime. Before his flight back to Hong Kong, we spent an afternoon stroll at the city center Taipei CKS Memorial Mall where he and his wife Cora could enjoy the spectacle performance of Change of Guards inside this edifice hall of memorial.
Figure: The photo with an English man displayed at the War History of Asia Pavilion in the Gallery of Taipei 's Chiang Kai-Shek, CKS Memorial Hall. The British Lord Mountbatten stood centered and the General Stilwell kept a rather social distancing with the rest.
Figure: David from Southampton England stumbled across his finding of an English man's photo in Taipei CKS Memorial Hall and enjoyed reading through the war history in the East Asia where he also stayed for some years. His first time in Taipei actually shared a marvelous connection of England and Taiwan.
Figure: A sizable statue of Chiang Kai-shek sitting like an altar centerpiece in the Taipei CKS Memorial Hall
When we walked through the War Time Gallery of Life Story for Chiang Kai Shek, the Chinese Nationalist (KMT) leader and the president during the World War II of China and later Taiwan, ROC, he immediately identified this piece of photo frame with a familiar person he knew from Southampton where David also calls it home. In this photo, Lord Louis Mountbatten stood at the center with Chiang and Madame Soong at his sides and perhaps fellows general commanders of the Pacific war region. The photo frame has a description that this was took after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and this was the meet-up when Lord Mountbatten flew to Chongchin of China during 1941 for the Ally Forces the Lord Mountbatten led at South East Asia where many foreign colonies of British Empire were involved during the warfare. It is an unusual occasion to see this photo as modern China back then had little interaction with Britain or revealed very little and perhaps only met Winston Churchill at Cairo when the WWII ended and this is something to be noted in the mid 20th century ROC (Republic of China) who later came over to Taiwan and has this exhibited for a wider audience.
According to David, Lord Mountbatten was a very popular person in Britain. Both of them are from Southampton where myself had visited more than twice. Like Coventry and many other cities of the UK which were badly hit by the German and the Allied Forces during the World War II, Southampton was almost ruined to the ground. Historically it is a frequent target for the siege and this place came a stronghold which is designed to resist in this southern coastal borders of England.
Lord Mountbatten (1900-1979) has a very interesting life and perhaps largely popular because of his connection to the modern day British Royal Family. He is the uncle of Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, and the husband of current Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. He is also the second cousin of the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and technically the uncle of Prince Charles. This is a bit of who he is. Besides being involved with the East Asian China's battleground as a commander, he was also titled as the First Earl Mountbatten of Burma during the war.
Figure: Photos of Romsey Abbey, England, where Lord Mountbattern long sleeps. Taken during my visit in Winter of 2011.
Mountbatten lived in a countryside house at Broadlands as his personal private land which sits in between Romsey and Southampton. It was formerly a manor land of the Romsey Abbey before the Norman's Conquest in 1066 in England. This is also the place Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip spent their honeymoon in 1947. In 1981, the newly married Prince and Princess of Wales Diana also spent their first three days of Honeymoon in this country house. After years Lord Mountbatten had left, part of the house is turned to a museum which opens to the public.
When Mountbatten was in a very old man, he was miserably killed during an explosion organised by the IRA (Irish Republican Army) which planted a bomb at his boat. He had a holiday at Ireland and was intended doing fishing from his boat. That was a terrible thing which occurred in the late 1979 of Britain. Mountbatten was later buried in Romsey Abbey where as his resting place. A tomb is inscribed with his name for his connection to the land and the country. Romsey Abbey has long been the resting places of the royal connections and one of the most stunning abbey towns in the south of England.
Figure: The tomb of Lord Mountbatten at Romsey Abbey, England. Source: Tripadvisor
Original Post from Social media:
2019年底帶了位來自英格蘭南方的南安普敦的老先生逛了中正紀念堂觀賞 Change of Guards, 也順帶看了老蔣的過往，看到戰爭史的一段，他馬上認出這照片裡的那位最高個子的英國人。
這位是英國皇族，現任依莉莎白女王先生菲利普親王的舅舅陸易蒙波頓，在二戰時主導東亞南亞的盟軍戰事，1941年結盟老蔣在東亞的戰區。
英國在中國南方、印度東南亞都有殖民地，當日本帝國捲入領土爭奪時，英國則被迫加入，雖然自身也扛了法西盧比荷的流亡皇室整天在狂燒錢，歐陸雖戰事，但子彈傷亡都落在英國（西歐真的欠英國這份人情債）...
蒙波頓正是南安普頓人，退休後也常居當地，我的那位南安朋友跟他長得挺像的，順便酸了他一下，他是否也英國貴族？哈，他否認，我白目！
蒙波頓將軍雖生平精彩，但最後一刻非常悲慘，他去了一趟愛爾蘭渡船游湖時，被北愛共合軍 IRA 安了炸藥，繃一下整個去了了，身後葬在南安附近的 Romsey 大教堂，據知也是許多貴族的長眠之地，當然英國的血腥歷史在1997年北愛共合軍和解後並成立自己國會政黨後有了盛世太平
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