CHRISTCHURCH, England -- Harold Guard, a pioneer submariner and veteran war correspondent for United Press who founded its Hong Kong bureau and covered the fall of Singapore in 1942, has died at his home in southern England. He was 87.
Guard had been in failing health for the past year. Funeral services were scheduled for Friday at Bournemouth on the English south coast.
Although blind since 1973, Guard maintained a keen interest in world events through radio broadcasts and old colleagues.
'He was a star of UP for many years,' said a former colleague, Laurence Meredith, of UPI in London. 'He was one of the last of the great foreign correspondents.'
Guard was one of a team of distinguished United Press correspondents -- including Joe Custer, Wallace Carroll, Frank Hewlett, Francis McCarthy, Karl Eskelund and Darrell Berringan -- who covered World War II in Asia and the Pacific.
Guard was born in the port of Falmouth in England's westernmost county of Cornwall, the son of a Royal Navy schoolmaster.
He served for 13 years in Britain's submarine service until 1930, when his leg was injured in an explosion aboard the Osiris and he left the Navy with a permanent limp.
The following year, he went to Hong Kong with his new wife, Marie, with whom he recently celebrated 55 years of marriage.
After jobs in banking and finance, he opened a Hong Kong bureau for United Press. As war clouds gathered, he evacuated his wife and daughter to Australia in 1940 and opened UP's first office in Singapore.
Guard was one of the last off the mainland as the Japanese army drove down the Malay peninsula in late 1942. He drove into Singapore ahead of Japanese troops along a marshy route that British defenders believed to be impregnable.
The governor of the colony told him not to worry about invasion because it was impossible for the Japanese to get through. 'I've just got through,' Guard replied.
He reported from Singapore until the last moment, escaping to Sumatra on a boat as the Japanese crossed the bridge onto Singapore Island.
In 1945, Guard returned to England and worked in the London bureau of United Press. He retired in 1959, shortly after United Press merged with the International News Service to form United Press International.
Guard is survived by his widow, daughter and three grandchildren.
