The Great Fire of Hong Kong
This is a guest post by Hong Kong writer and editor Adam Nebbs.
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Welcome to GwuloHere you'll find over 50,000 pages about old Hong Kong to explore, including over 30,000 photos. The content is added by a friendly community of people who enjoy sharing what we know about Hong Kong's history, and you are very welcome to join us. Kind regards, David P.S. To receive more old Hong Kong photos and stories, please sign up for our free weekly newsletter. |
This is a guest post by Hong Kong writer and editor Adam Nebbs.
A few resources if you're looking for information about relatives who worked in one of the Swire companies (Taikoo, Butterfield & Swire, etc):
Pre-WW2
Rob Jennings, Manager of Archives and Public Affairs at John Swire & Sons Ltd. may be able to help. Here's an example he told recently on the Swire Mariners Association Visitors Book:
With the border closed and the entrepot trade dying, the question was asked - what was Hong Kong to do to feed and house all its refugees?
The British Government's solution was to consider handing Hong Kong back to China, just at the moment when Uncle Sam had stopped telling them to do that.
There was another idea, though.
Time to introduce a hero of the Right throughout the world, the architect of the Hong Kong Economic Miracle, Sir John James Cowperthwaite:
He, for it was surely a man, was British (or just possibly Portuguese), worked as an Assistant at a Sugar company, lived on Hong Kong Island, and was most definitely in the minority.
I've got an idea to bring some more HK history out into the light. I can't do it alone, so I'm asking for your help.
Overview
The old Hong Kong Jurors Lists contain lots of valuable information. But, they're hidden away, and not very easy to search. We can fix those problems, and at the same time make its easier to spot new patterns in the information: