This week: the Angel of Dieppe, the world's oldest person and a pioneering Asian-American actor
THE French nun Sister Agnes-Marie Valois, who has died aged 103, was known as the Angel of Dieppe for her selfless, courageous work treating and helping British and Canadian soldiers after a disastrous Allied raid on occupied France during the Second World War.
Sister Agnes, who was born in Rouen, was on duty at a hospital in the city when the raid was launched near Dieppe, about 40 miles away. Called Operation Jubilee, it was launched from England on August 19, 1942, and involved around 6,000 soldiers, most of whom were Canadian.
The operation was one of the first of the Allies' co-ordinated invasions of the war, but it was a disaster and the Germans were waiting for the soldiers as they waded ashore. More than 900 Canadians were killed and around 100 British and many more were injured.
Sister Agnes cared for nearly 2000 soldiers at her hospital and stood up to the German authorities who demanded that she treat German soldiers first. Among the soldiers she cared for, she became a symbol of hope and love, earning the name the Angel of Dieppe.
Born into a well-off family in Rouen, Sister Agnes had joined the Augustinian order and began training as a nurse in 1936. The mayor of Dieppe, Nicolas Langlois said flags were flown at half-mast in the city to pay tribute to "a great lady of our history".
Valois had been living in retirement at a monastery when she died.
THE world's oldest person Nabi Tajima, who has died aged 117, was the last known person born in the 19th century, and raised seven sons and two daughters and reportedly had more than 160 descendants, including great-great-great grandchildren.
She was born on August 4, 1900, in Kikai, a small island of about 7,000 people halfway between Okinawa and Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands, and became the oldest living person seven months ago.
On reaching the landmark, a ceremony was held in Kikai to mark the achievement and Ms Tajima was shown on television moving her hands to the beat of music played on traditional Japanese instruments.
The US-based Gerontology Research Group says that another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, is now the world's oldest person in its records. Ms Miyako lives south of Tokyo in Kanagawa prefecture, and is due to turn 117 in 10 days.
Guinness World Records certified 112-year-old Masazo Nonaka of northern Japan as the world's oldest man earlier this month, and was planning to recognise Ms Tajima as the world's oldest person.
THE actor Soon-Tek Oh, who has died aged 85, was a pioneering figure in Asian-American television and theatre. He appeared in some of the biggest television shows of the 1970s and 80s but was perhaps best known for establishing one of the first Asian-American theatre companies in the United States.
Born in Korea, Oh became a familiar face on television in shows such as MASH, Charlie's Angels, Hawaii Five-O and Eighties hits such as Magnum PI and Cagney and Lacey. He also appeared in films - in 1974, he was a baddie turned goodie in the Roger Moore Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun; he also voiced Fa Zhou in the animated film Mulan and its sequel.
However, Oh's greatest lasting legacy is probably as the founder of the East West Players which helped pave the way for other Asian-American theatre companies. Oh also taught acting in Korea for several years before returning to live in the US.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here