British Army Aid Group (BAAG)

[Voltigeur]

Width 64 mm,Height 52 mm
Front;
http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib...d%2520insignia

Back;
http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib...d%2520insignia


The British Army Aid Group (BAAG) was set up in Southern China on 6 March 1942. It was formed at the suggestion of L T Ride, then a Major, who had commanded the field ambulance of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. He was later Colonel Sir Lindsay Ride, CBE, ED. Major Ride escaped from captivity in Hong Kong and on arrival in China proposed setting up an organisation with the objective of helping prisoners of war, internees and escapees from the island. With the support of General Wavell (C-in-C India), this was agreed by the War Office and Ride became MI9 representative in China and Commandant of the Group. He set up his organization in Kwantung Province, with the main HQ at Kukong and a forward HQ at Waichow. During its existence the Group materially assisted by the Chinese, aided the escape of around 2,000 people from Japanese captivity and smuggled food, drugs and messages to those imprisoned in Hong Kong. It also became a major source of military intelligence for the Allies fighting in Southern China and through a hospital set up by Ride, gave medical treatment to about 30,000 Chinese a year. In addition, during a famine in 1943, BAAG fed as many as 6,000 people a day. From the several thousand Chinese the BAAG brought out of Japanese occupied territory Ride formed the Hong Kong Volunteer Company, which fought in Burma alongside the Chindits. Many of these volunteers were later recruited to take leading roles in the post-war Hong Kong civil administration. BAAG was disbanded on 31 December 1945. Ride himself chose the emblem worn by the Group, considering a scarlet pimpernel appropriate to the nature of the work. At the end of the war an emblem, incorporating the pimpernel device, was designed along the lines of those adopted by Corps and Regiments of the British and Indian Armies, but this was never officially registered. Ride returned to Hong Kong and in 1949 became the University Vice Chancellor.