A FORMER prisoner of war who survived the battle for Hong Kong and forced labour in the coal mines of Japan has died just six days before he was due to take part in the Liberation Day parade.
Francis Reis, 73, father of actress and former Miss Hong Kong Michele Reis, died at Prince of Wales Hospital on Tuesday after fighting a blood disorder for eight months.
He is to be buried on Monday - the day he was to have celebrated the liberation of Hong Kong and commemorated the deaths of his war-time colleagues.
Instead of his wife, four children, and three brothers and sisters accompanying him to the 50th anniversary parade, they will be paying their last respects to him at the International Funeral Home in Hunghom.
His third wife Flora, whom Mr Reis married in 1989, said yesterday he had been looking forward to the parade at the Cenotaph with up to 400 veterans.
'He was a member of the Prisoners of War Association and always joined in their activities,' Mrs Reis said.