Surgeon, Consul, Spies: Dr. “Eddie” Gosano and British Consul John Reeves in Macau, 1942 – 1945 – (full article)

Roy Eric Xavier, Ph.D
The Center for Luso-Asian Diaspora Studies,
Asian American Research Center, ISSI,
University of California, Berkeley    

July 2026

Abstract

A U.S. Senator in the 19th century once remarked that “history is written by the victors and framed according to the prejudices and bias existing on their side”. These sentiments suggest some of the reasons why the contributions of Dr. Eduardo (Eddie) Gosano, a British intelligence agent in Macau during World War II, have never been fully examined. Despite numerous studies of the war in the Asian Pacific theatre written by British and American scholars, Gosano’s wartime service as a refugee doctor and an operative working behind Japanese lines remains largely absent from the historical record of the period.

The following article fills this void by discussing the circumstances in which Gosano began a collaboration with British Consul John Reeves and Lieutenant Colonel Lindsay Ride in a plan to undermine the Japanese military occupation of Hong Kong. As a poor Luso-Asian Macanese from a family of sportsmen, Gosano volunteered his skills without recognition or reward to serve the Allied war effort. The analysis also contributes to the little known understanding of how resident “aliens” in Hong Kong, despite their traditional discrimination under a colonial system, endured both the doubts of allies and the cruelty of enemy agents to work toward the final victory.

Read the full article, with more photos and complete footnotes, through this link.