Clifford Matthews was an undergraduate at the University of Hong Kong (1938-1941) who fought with the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps during the Japanese invasion and became a prisoner-of-war in Hong Kong and Japan. He is currently an emeritus professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Oswald Cheung was an undergraduate at the University of Hong Kong (1938-1941) who escaped to China and served with the British Intelligence in China and India during the war. His subsequent career in law (Queen's Counsel) and government (Legislative Council, Executive Council) in Hong Kong led to a knighthood in 1987.