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Who were the famous persons in Victoria Prison?

Ho Chi Minh

For over 100 years, Victoria Prison confined countless people and held many stories of sorrow. Rumours had it that Dr. Sun Yat Sen was held here when he organized the revolutionary movement. However, facts indicate that since his failure in the Guangzhou Uprising in 1895, he was deported by the Hong Kong Government for 5 years; the deportation order was renewed in 1902 and 1907 and was lifted only in 1912. There was no evidence that he was ever jailed in Hong Kong.

Another famous person who was jailed here was also a national leader – Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969), who overthrew the French colonial rule. He was born Nguyễn Sinh Cung, and was also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc. He had joined the anti-French colonial movement since high school. He left the country as a seaman in 1912, and had once requested that the French government should recognize Vietnam’s rights to freedom, democracy, equity and self-governance; the request was denied. He later joined the French Communist Party.

In 1930 he came to Hong Kong under the pseudonym Song Man Chor, where he organized the Vietnam Communist Party underground. In June in the following year he was arrested and held in Victoria Prison awaiting deportation and extradition to Vietnam to the French authorities.

At the time, because the Hong Kong police failed to show an arrest warrant during Ho’s arrest, his representing lawyer accused the Government of illegal detention and applied for a “personal protection order” from the court. The case was later appealed to the Privy Council in London with the result of Ho Chi Minh being released without guilt. He was free to leave Hong Kong and travel to whichever place of his choice. In early 1933, Ho travelled to Singapore by boat and was arrested upon arrival and repatriated to Hong Kong. He was again imprisoned in Victoria Prison.

Upon request by Ho’s lawyer, the Governor of Hong Kong William Peel agreed to his release. Later, disguised as a Chinese scholar, Ho left Hong Kong by boat to Xiamen where he travelled to Shanghai and gained the help of Song Qingling, wife of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. He later travelled to the Soviet Union where he continued his revolutionary movement. In 1942, formally taking the name “Ho Chi Minh”, he returned to China and gained contact with the Vietnam revolutionary anti-Japanese movement. In 1945 he successfully led a revolution and overthrew the French colonial government; in the same year the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was founded.

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