Surgeon, Consul, Spies: Dr. “Eddie” Gosano and British Consul John Reeves in Macau, 1941 – 1945

Roy Eric Xavier, Ph.D

The Center for Luso-Asian Diaspora Studies,
Asian American Research Center, ISSI,
University of California, Berkeley    

June 2026

Abstract

Among the personalities to emerge from World War II in the Pacific was an obscure doctor from Hong Kong named Eduardo (Eddie) Gosano. As one of four physicians interned in the Argyle and Sham Shui Po prison camps in Kowloon after the Japanese invasion, Gosano served with such well-known figures as Major Charles Ralph (C.R.) Boxer, a noted Portuguese and Dutch historian, Morris Abraham “Two-Gun” Cohen, an arms dealer and advisor to Nationalist General Chiang Kai-shek, Lt. Col. Lindsay Ride, the future head of the British Army Aid Group (BAAG) intelligence unit, and in Macau with British Consul John Pownall Reeves.1

This is the story of how young Dr. Gosano came to lead BAAG’s agents in Macau while serving thousands of refugees, and working undercover gathering information and organizing the escapes of several hundred Allied flyers and intelligence agents to Free China. This dual role included working closely with Consul John Reeves, who at times clashed with Gosano and others over tactics. Many decades later, Gosano’s unusual chronicle as a Sportsman from a family of international stars, an overworked Surgeon in Hong Kong, and as a reluctant Allied Spy alongside the British Consul, is mentioned only in a few studies, and in some cases, not at all.2

This article attempts to fill that void in the historical narrative of the war. Returning to the period required close readings of Eduardo Gosano’s and John Reeves’ wartime experiences in order to discuss their working relations. Other sources included documents, genealogies, historical studies, interviews, and personal accounts of family members, which informed the contexts and circumstances in which both Gosano and Reeves served the Allied cause. It is appropriate, therefore, to include in the bibliography the work of several writers and scholars, past and present, who have contributed to the reconstruction of this important, and largely untold, story. 

[The full article will be presented shortly.]

1. Both Boxer and Ride were prisoners when Gosano was serving in the Sham Shui Po camp for the military. Cohen was initially processed in Kowloon, then held on Hong Kong island in the Stanley civilian prisoner camp until 1943.

2. As noted later in this article, neither Edwin Ride’s account of BAAG nor Consul John Reeves’ memoir specifically mention Gosano’s espionage work in Macau.