What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• Index to past journals of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong
   
• Please can I ask a favour: if you have friends living in the UK who have a Hong Kong connection, please could you let them know about my talk in London on 25 April 2026. When I last checked, the hall was about half full, so I'm hoping we can fill some more seats.
   
• Piers in Hong Kong
   
• New MA thesis on the longue durée history of squatter settlements in New Kowloon
   
• Guide: How to embed a map / list of Places in text on the Gwulo website
   
• CO 131 as a resource for research into early colonial Hong Kong
   
• Readers ask:
  • Looking for photos of James Tinker Wakefield, who was an early Chief Resettlement Officer in postwar Hong Kong and wrote two important reports on social welfare and squatter resettlement
     
  • Does anyone have any photos or details of the Monument to Indian Soldiers at Ho Man Tin ?
     
  • When was the name Immortalite Road used in the Royal Naval Dockyard?
     
  • How did William Mercer come across uncommon Chinese works in the 19th century?
     
  • Did the 48th Gurkha Infantry Brigade have a specific flag, and if so, what did it look like?
     
  • Looking for the family of Sgt R Holder, who was in Hong Kong with 54 Independent Field Squadron in Hong Kong from 1958-1962. Their amah, now aged 102, hopes to reconnect with the children she helped raise.

Places

This folded paper street map shows eight areas of Hong Kong island. I've scanned them and added them to Gwulo's online maps as a single layer: 1980 HK

Here's a video introduction to the new map (if you don't see the video below, please click here to watch it on Youtube):

It was originally published in 1980 as "Sun Sun's latest street map of Hong Kong": 

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• If you know Bill Lake via his contributions on Gwulo as user HK Bill, you'll know him as a military historian. That's just a small part of the story though, as Bill has also been a soldier, actor (appearing in over 200 Hong Kong films!), handbag designer, bar manager, decorator, and much more. Whenever I've met Bill and heard him tell stories of his life, I've thought 'Someone should write a book about this'. Well, someone has: The Original Gweilo, the new book telling Bill's life story, is now available at Amazon. I ordered my copy last week and have enjoyed reading it.
   
• My new talk is taking shape. For me, making a new talk always starts the same way: staring at a pile of photos, shuffling them around, and hoping for themes to emerge. It takes a while, but gradually the threads that link the photos together become clear. If you'd like to see the finished talk, please join me in London on 25 April 2026. Click here for details and booking.
   
• Accessing early issues of Hong Kong's Blue Books.
   
• Rob is continuing to update his records of wartime pillboxes in Hong Kong, now working on the 'Line of Gaps' or 'Locality' pillboxes.
   
• Readers ask:
  • Lisa is looking for any photos of her father Edwin Soloman, or to hear from anyone who knew him. He was in the 1st Royal Tank Regiment based in Sek Kong in 1957.
     
  • Does anyone have original copies of the photos shown in these photocopies?

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Places

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• The 1878 Jurors List has been transcribed and is now online.
   
• Rob has been updating his records of the WW2 Pillboxes and Lyon Lights on Hong Kong island, using information supplied by A Spatial History Project, Department of History, Baptist University Hong Kong.
   
• Readers ask: Where were these photos taken?

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Places

Wishing Gwulo's readers, contributors, and patrons all the best for the Year of the Horse.

Not surprisingly, many of the photos of horses we have on Gwulo were taken at the racecourse in Happy Valley, like the scene shown above. Not all though, as other photos include horses for sale ...

horses in parades ...

and horses ridden by children ...

Related pages on Gwulo:

• More photos of horses, the Happy Valley Racecourse, and the Kwanti Race Course
   
• Where are the horses in old Hong Kong photos?
   
• Horse riding schools in Hong Kong
   
• 1935, Equine sports club opened in Shatin