What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• Readers' memories of:
  • Richard “Dick” HUGHES C.B.E. (aka "The Cardinal") [1906-1984]
     
  • Telegraph Bay Village in the 1970s & 80s
     
  • Replacing the Armed Forces' telephone cables in 1963
     
• A new wartime diary written by Andrew Salmon is being added to Gwulo. The latest entry to be added is from 25 September 1942:
  • ... after days of standing by, we were all paraded and addressed by a Lieutenant Wada through his interpreter, Niimori: "You are going to a pleasant land, where you will be well looked after. I will be in charge of you. Remember my face."
     
  • That statement was wrong in so many ways, as Salmon was one of the POWs who were about to board the Lisbon Maru.
     
• Old newspapers are valuable resources when researching history. The HK Public Library's MMIS has been a good tool for reading old Hong Kong newspapers online but it has recently been discontinued, so we're waiting to see how well its replacement works. As an alternative, here's another way to access the Overland China Mail.
   
• Flogging was the harshest corporal punishment given to prisoners in colonial Hong Kong. On a recent visit to the National Archives I stumbled upon letters from Governor Hennessy to London discussing this, along with details of prison life in 1870s Hong Kong. Join me to explore them in this video:
  

   
   

• CityUnseen has been documenting the Heavy Draw-Off Fire Hydrants around Hong Kong. You can view them on a Map or a List
   
• Readers have helped solve two long-standing mysteries in recent weeks.
  • First, what happened to Ellen Olson after she got married? She seemed to just disappear. It turns out the family memory of her becoming Ellen Melcher was a red herring, sending us off on a fruitless search. Now it's been discovered she actually married a Mr Ritchie, and then a Mr Hilkers, and all has become clear.
     

  • Second, where was the building shown in the photo below? At first it was thought to have been above Happy Valley on Broadwood Road, then there was a time we thought it was in Kowloon, but now we believe it was along Wanchai Road.
     

    

     

• A bonus to receiving the BEM is that I also received an invitation to attend last Tuesday's garden party at Buckingham Palace. The sun shone, the palace gardens were beautiful, the military bands were tuneful, and there was cake! A happy day.
   

  

  
   

• Readers are looking for:
  • School photos for Saint Mary's School in 1935-1941, when the reader's mother and her sisters attended
     

  • Which year was this map drawn?
     

    

Places

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• I've added a new scanned paper map to Gwulo's maps: '1882 Map of North shore, showing locations of sewers & latrines'. (You can also view it as an overlay with markers to see the buildings in that area.)
   
• A bench has been erected on Carlton Hill in Edinburgh in memory of Douglas Ford GC, who was executed by the Japanese in 1943.
   

• Readers have been gathering photos and information about the various P&O headquarters buildings through the years:

  

  • 1st Generation [c.1845-c.1881]
  • 2nd Generation [c.1850-c.1885]
  • 3rd Generation [1887-????]
  • 4th Generation [1924-1961]
  • 5th Generation [c.1965-c.1980]
     
• Readers ask:
  • If you remember the British military building that used to stand on Homantin Hill Road, Simon911 has a couple of questions for you.
     
  • Looking for information about the attack by the Japanese army on Lyemun Barracks, and what happened to the men in the Royal Artillery there who became POWs.
     

• Can you identify any of the people in this photo? (Click 'Zoom' to see a larger copy with more detail.)

  

   

• Readers would like to contact:
  • Willy Freeman, Bermuda
     
  • Jim Terry, Blarney, County Cork

Places & Streets

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• Gwulo is coming to Cheltenham! I'll give a talk in Cheltenham on 18 June, kindly organised by Martin Reynolds. Full details and how to book (note there's an early-bird offer if you book by 30 April).
   
• Thank you to everyone who came along to the talk in London on 5 April, and thank you to the Friends of East Asia for hosting it. The sun shone, the dim sum lunch beforehand was delicious, and we had a full house for the talk.
   
• Continuing discussions in the comments about:
  • Hong Kong's old fire hydrants
     

  • the location of this photo:
     

    

• If you've enjoyed reading Martin Booth's book, titled either Gweilo, or Golden Boy depending on the edition, we've got a list of the main sites he mentions in each chapter. The list has links to the sites' location and photos, so you can see the places he describes as you read along.
   
• A look at the three old bridges across the Wong Nai Chung Nullah / Bowrington Canal.
   
• Online resources:
  • Cheung Chau Notes (c. 1923-1936)
     
  • Directory of Protestant Missions in China 1936
     
• The 1889 Jurors List is now online, and ...
• ... we've started typing up the 1888 Jurors List - please join in and type up a page if you can
   

• essarem introduces a collection of matchboxes he found on the streets of Hong Kong and Kowloon in 1966. Sample:
   

  

   

Places & Streets

In this video I'll show how to spot the little clues that help pin down a photo’s location, then use them to show a century of changes along Pottinger Street:

(If the video didn’t appear above, please click here to watch it on Youtube).

Gwulo website upgrade

The Gwulo website is back online again after I've finished upgrading the software that runs it. The next job is to fix the problems that inevitably occur after an upgrade like this.

• Details of the upgrade
• How to report any problems you find

London talk on 5th April

[Update: we're now fully booked for this talk. Thank you to everyone who has booked, and I look forward to seeing you on the 5th.]

If you attended the Gwulo's farewell talk I gave in Hong Kong last year, and can think of any friends in the UK who might enjoy it, please could you let them know I will give the talk again in London on 5th April? When I last checked there were only 10 seats still available for the 70-seat venue, so I'm hoping we can make it a full house.

• 5 April talk: details and how to book

Chinese translation of Gwulo's first book

Some exciting news for Gwulo's books: I've signed a contract with a Hong Kong publisher to publish a Chinese-language translation of Volume 1 of Old Hong Kong Photos and The Tales They Tell. That's all I can say at the moment, but I'll share more details when I can.

Missing wartime diaries

The daily Wartime Diaries emails couldn't be sent during the website upgrade. If you'd like to catch up on the missed days, please use the links below:

83 years ago

• 21 Mar 1942
• 22 Mar 1942
• 23 Mar 1942
• 24 Mar 1942

82 years ago

• 21 Mar 1943
• 22 Mar 1943
• 23 Mar 1943
• 24 Mar 1943

81 years ago

• 21 Mar 1944
• 22 Mar 1944
• 23 Mar 1944
• 24 Mar 1944

80 years ago

• 21 Mar 1945
• 22 Mar 1945
• 23 Mar 1945
• 24 Mar 1945