Harold John Timperley (1898 - 1954)

Harold John Timperley, the grandson of Mr William Timperley (see biography) who was born in Bunbury, was a journalist turned author who is most well known for  “What War Means: The Japanese Terror in China” which documented  the Japanese military’s treatment of Chinese citizens in what became known as “the Nanking Massacre” during the early years of the Sino-Japanese War and has been described “as a book which shocked awake Western intellectuals" (reference, reference).  He was also an official in the United Nations Refugee and Rehabilitation Association (U.N.R.R.A) which later  became part of The United Nations when it officially formed in 1945.

Early Life

Harold was born in Bunbury in 1898 to Frederick and Josie (nee Cummins) Timperley. His grandfather, William Timperley, had been the Resident Magistrate (R.M.) of Bunbury for 10 years at that time and the family was well known throughout the community (W.H. Timperley Biography).Harold’s father, Frederick, was an auctioneer  and  land agent in Bunbury but when Harold was only a toddler, the family moved to the Goldfields briefly and lived there until Frederick became ill in 1901 (reference, reference, reference, reference). After a long illness, Frederick died in 1905 when Harold was just 7 years old and following this, Harold, his mother and two sisters moved to Brunswick (reference, reference).

Harold attended Perth Boy’s Central School and, in 1912, he won a half scholarship to attend Stott & Co. Business College in Perth in 1913 (reference). At the end of 1913, he was the dux of the class in Shorthand and came second in his year overall (reference). In the same year, he also sat the Public Service exam and attained 2nd Class Honours (reference).

After completing his education, Harold began his career in journalism with the Daily News but it was cut short when he was accepted  for overseas service in 1916. The Daily News gave him a send off and promised his job would be waiting for him when he returned (reference). 

World War 1

Harold Timperley served as a warrant Officer in the Australian Army Pay Corps (reference). In 1918, he wrote a letter to his former workmates at the Daily News from France in which he describes the battle weariness of the 11th Battalion and explains that those serving have doubts that they would be valued after the war. He urged the people at home to allay the soldiers’ anxiety and look after them when they returned home (reference). Harold returned to Australia in 1919 and for a brief time returned to The Daily News (reference, reference)

China

In 1921, Harold left the Daily News and went to Hong Kong to work on the literary staff of  the “China Mail” (reference). He was intending to return  to Western Australia in early 1924 when his contract with China Mail had ended, but instead went to Peking (Beijing) to begin working for Reuters (reference, reference). By 1927, he had moved to Hankow (Wuhan) as a special representative for Reuters (reference). 

When Harold Timperley returned to Western Australia for a holiday in 1927, he was questioned about the disappearance of another journalist, Frank Riley who was the son of Charles Riley, the Archbishop  of Perth.  Harold had met Frank Riley and said he was regarded well by other foreign correspondents but his disappearance was a puzzle and indicative of the extent of lawlessness in the remote parts of China (reference).

The Jinan Incident

After  Mr Timperley returned to China, the northern part of the country had destabilized further and he was witness to the change of power in Jinan which led to the Japanese occupation of the city. Now known as the “Jinan incident” or the “3 May Tragedy”, this initialised a series of events leading up to the 2nd Sino-Japanese war which began in 1931 (reference):

"The turnover occurred with a precision that almost would lead one to suspect collusion. Immediately after breakfast this morning I went across to the Tsin-Pu station to find out what had happened overnight, and was just in time to see the last of the Russian armored trains guarding the Northern retreat pull out slowly with its guns swung out for action. The tail of it

was still in sight when a column of Southern troops appeared suddenly in the street leading to the station, and deploying along the embankment began taking pot-shots at the fast disappearing 'Lao-Mao-tzes,' as Chang Tsung-chang's White Russians are known hereabouts.”

Mr Timperley noted that the Southern troops were poorly equipped and  “pretty much of a ragtag and bobtail lot” of which a large percentage were young teenagers with little training .

It didn’t take long before Harold Timperley was on the receiving end of the Japanese troops who at that stage were on side with the Southern troops. Returning from the station to his hotel, he found a barricade of Japanese soldiers around the hotel. At this time, he was let through without incident but on returning from the Telegraph office in the afternoon, he crossed the barricade “and was just making for the hotel entrance when a Japanese soldier made a bull-dog rush and

clubbed me in the middle of the back with the butt end of his rifle.” After successfully explaining to the Japanese that he was British and not Russian, he could finally return to his hotel room.

The following day, Harold was not so lucky. After a particularly harrowing experience with Nationalist troops, he heard “the rattle of machine gun and rifle fire” and discovering it was the Japanese troops “was not reassuring.” Finding it impossible to cross the Japanese lines to his hotel, he went instead to Chinese Headquarters. Kater he found his hotel room had been ransacked and all his belongings had gone. (reference).

The Second Sino-Japanese War

From 1928, Mr  Timperley was working for the British paper, the  Manchester Guardian, and moved around China reporting primarily on the Japanese occupation (reference, reference).

At the time, he was known for his dedication to journalism and his humanitarian efforts towards the people he lived amongst and reported on. During his stay in Shanghai (1936 - 1937) he personally  procured medical help for the unpaid apprentices working in the industrial factories and he pleaded for help on behalf of the families who had fled from the Japanese invaders and were living in the alleyways of the city (reference, reference).

Marriage

In August, 1937, during the war, Harold married Elizabeth Chambers, a young American girl who had been working as an editor and translator  for the Ministry of Chinese Railways before the Ministry was forced to close by the Japanese (reference, reference). The couple were not together for very  long though as Elizabeth returned home to the USA six months later in February, 1938 (reference) and she filed for divorce in 1939 citing her husband’s infidelity as the reason  (reference).

Informing the World

Timperley was horrified by the behaviour of the Japanese troops and he privately implored the British government to protest the war (reference). It was also difficult to get the information out to the world at large and his reports on the war were seized by the Japanese censors several times (reference). He sent some documentation with his wife Elizabeth when she went home but ultimately decided to write a book to “strip war of its false glamour” and because he believed “the man on the street” had a right to know the facts (reference, reference).

Mr Timperley travelled to London in 1938 and the book was published there in the same year under the title “What War Means” then subsequently in the US as “The Japanese Terror in China” (reference). Eventually the two titles were combined (reference). 

This book had an enormous impact at the time. Wang Zhikun, vice president of the Literature and History Association under the Chongqing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and an expert of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, said in 2014 that “ the book Japanese Terror in China was the earliest publication of the Nanjing Massacre and has the largest impact to the West World. The book provided moral support in China's joining in the anti fascist allies” , while Japanese historian, Hora Tomio stated it was “a book that shocked awake Western intellectuals” (reference, reference).

Largely due to this book, Harold Timperley was the only Australian on a list of people who were reportedly  targeted for death by Japanese terrorists (reference), 

Publicity Advisor for China

In 1939, Mr Timperley became a political advisor to the Chinese Ministry of Information until  1943 (reference). During this time, he visited Australia and warned Australia not to appease the Japanese because, he stated: “Appeasement is not only useless, it is suicidally dangerous. Japan will not keep any promise that is not in her own interests.” (reference). He also penned the  book “Japan: A new World Problem” published in 1942, which was “A penetrating study of ancient myths and psychological forces at work in modern Japan, in which he exposes the falsity of reasons held to excuse Japan's plunge to war” (reference). 

United Nations

In 1943, Mr Timperley moved to New York to take up the position of Deputy Secretary General of the  United Nations (allied powers’ formal title) Information Office (reference). Three years later, he returned to China as an advisor for  the U.N.R.R.A to help the Director of the Chinese branch of this organisation (reference). 

Mr Timperley continued working for the United Nations Organisation (U.N.O.) after it was officially formed in 1945. In 1948, he was the  Deputy Principal Secretary (later to an Acting Principal Secretary) of the Good Offices Committee for Indonesia set up to organise negotiations between Indonesia and the Netherlands (reference, reference). After this,  in 1949, he was the  chief of the research section in the U.N.O. Department of Public Information (reference). His final U.N.O posting was working for UNESCO in Paris (reference)

Indonesia

Mr Timperley left  the United Nations in 1950 and returned to help Indonesia with its transition to independence, becoming  a technical adviser attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Unfortunately this was short lived as Harold contracted a tropical disease while there  and returned to London in 1951 (reference).

“War on Want” Campaign

On his return to England, Mr Timperley became interested in the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers) and became a member in 1952. During this time, he was actively involved in forming the “War on Want” campaign and was treasurer and secretary of the newly formed organisation (reference). He also wrote a pamphlet on this subject in 1953  and organized the first “War on Want” campaign in January, 1954 (reference, reference).

Death

The tropical disease contracted in Indonesia eventually proved fatal for Harold Timperley. In November, 1954 he was found unconscious in his bed and taken to Cuckfield hospital but died the next day on the 20th November, 1954 (reference, reference).