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Heroes from History People Really Don’t Appreciate Enough

Khalid Elhassan November 10, 2020 32 min

William Colby - William J. Donovan — William Colby (oak leaves on cap) with OSS personnel and Norwegian Resistance members in Norway. Special Operations

20. This WWII Hero Kept on Performing Heroic Deeds During the Subsequent Cold War

Bill Chong receiving an award from Hong Kong’s governor. Behind the Medal

For his courage in the face of death and exploits behind enemy lines, Bill Chong was decorated by Hong Kong’s governor in 1946. That made him the only Chinese-Canadian ever awarded the British Empire Medal. British intelligence knew and appreciated the fact that they had a hero on their hands. After the war, they asked him to stay on as an agent, and he agreed.

Bill Chong in old age. Chinese-Canadian Military Museum

Chong worked for British intelligence, operating out of Hong Kong and carrying out missions into communist China, until he retired in 1976. He returned to Canada, but nobody knew of his background until somebody noticed a photo of him receiving an award from Hong Kong’s governor. He was talked into joining a veteran’s organization, and after word of his exploits spread, he became the subject of a CBC documentary. He died in 2006, at age 95.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.