Ho Weng Toh
Singaporean bomber pilot (1920–2024)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ho Weng Toh (Chinese: 何永道; 1920 – 6 January 2024), also known as Winkie, was a Singaporean World War II bomber pilot for the Chinese-American Composite Wing (Provisional) (sometimes called the "Flying Tigers") and later a pioneer pilot for Singapore Airlines.
Early life
Ho was born in a small town in Ipoh, Perak in 1920 to a shoe shop merchant from China. He was the sixth of six children. He had his primary and secondary education in Malaysia but managed to attend university as his uncle was a rich tin miner.[1]
He attended St. Stephen's College in Stanley and Lingnan University in Hong Kong in 1941 whilst the Japanese invaded China.[1][2] He later escaped with his fellow students from China after enduring the Japanese occupation for a few months by bribing bandits to take them across the border.[3]
He stated that he had also seen the bombing of Kai Tak Airport.[4] Ho left Hong Kong and went to Guangzhou where he saw a poster for air force recruitment.[4] He then became a trainee pilot for the Chinese-American Composite Wing (Provisional) in 1942 and trained with other pilots in Arizona.[2]
Career
After his training, Ho was sent on missions as a B-25 Mitchell bomber pilot and performed over 18 missions in occupied China during World War II and returned to Ipoh when he was done.[5] After the war, Ho was stationed in Hankou, Wuhan as an instructor.[6] He later went to Shanghai and became a commercial pilot for Central Air Transport Corporation.
After the fall of Shanghai, he and Augusta left and went to Singapore in 1951, where he joined Malayan Airlines and later became a pilot for Singapore Airlines after Malayan Airlines split. He worked at Singapore Airlines for 30 years[5] and retired in 1980 as a chief pilot of Singapore Airlines' Boeing 737 fleet.[7]
Personal life
Ho had been living in Singapore since 1953 till his death in 2024. Ho met Portuguese Augusta Rodrigues during his stint in Shanghai and they got married on 5 May 1949.[6]
Their son was born in Guangzhou and daughter in Hong Kong. They later all got Singaporean citizenship.[6] His wife died in 1977 of lung cancer.[8]
In 2019, he released a book titled Memoirs of a Flying Tiger: The Story of a WWII Veteran and SIA Pioneer Pilot from the advice of George Yeo.[9] In 2023, a short film called Flying Tigers based on his life was released and he was portrayed by Richie Koh.[7]
Ho died on 6 January 2024 at the age of 103.[1]
In media
Captain Ho's wartime endeavours were featured in Channel News Asia's 2020 documentary Forgotten Heroes [10].