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Human Interest
This Article Last Updated: Nov 12th, 2012 - 20:56:21
 | Major C. Templer of the Royal Artillery
Regiment of Great Britain | In 1941 the Imperial Japanese Army overran the colony of Hong Kong and imprisoned those Allied soldiers who survived the battle, some in a camp in the Sham Shui Po district. One of these was Major C. Templer of the Royal Artillery Regiment of Great Britain - a man who had sailed the Star in competitions before World War II. He was shot in the leg during the battle for Hong Kong and so he and troops from the Winnipeg Fusiliers and the Royal Rifle Company of Canada (Montreal) were imprisoned together. To keep himself busy in the hospital he began to reproduce his memory of the Star in model form but of course he had difficulty in acquiring the materials. The wood came from many sources such as the chest of drawers, etc., the batons of bamboo, and the lead weight from many scrapings with his homemade knife from the lead roof gutters (assisted by friends protecting him from the ever watchful eye of the Japanese soldiers). The sails were cut from his bed sheet and the lines from selections of thread from his and his friends' clothes. He called her Treenlaur, indeed as were all his boats in his lifetime. It was the name of his favourite fishing camp in Ireland.
 | | Treenlauer | There were of course other endeavours available to him but the boat was his triumph over his captors. Finally he was allowed to sail her for three days in a big tank in the camp but the Japanese stopped that saying, "Too many funs."
When finally released after the atom bomb was dropped in 1945, after three years of imprisonment, he slung his banjo over the shoulder, his knapsack on his back, the Star yacht under one arm and his trumpet under the other and travelled across the Pacific, the USA and finally the Atlantic Ocean to his life as a beekeeper in Devon, England. The model yacht sat proudly in its cradle in his house for the next forty years until his death in 1986. His wife kept the Star until her death in 2004 when his daughter Jenny Kyle inherited it. Jenny now lives in Burlington, Ontario, Canada and it is obvious that the boat's days were numbered as the Templer children aged and modern times dictate that the grandchildren cannot accommodate it as a personal treasure.
 | | Main sail star | Not as spry as she once was, Treenlaur belongs where those who cherish the Star Class story and will continue to honor it and its history. On 9th September, 2012, Jenny donated Treenlaur to the International Star Class Yacht Racing Association at its North American Championship in Hamilton, Ontario.
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