I bought this photo as a cheap & cheerful view of the old City Hall, but once it arrived and I could look at it with a magnifying glass, it’s the fountain that’s the centre of attention.
Here's a lovely surprise to start my year - I've been awarded a British Empire Medal in the 2025 New Year's Honours List, 'For services to Heritage Preservation in Hong Kong':
I first heard about it in early December, when I received an email saying I'd receive good news if I called a certain Hong Kong mobile number. It looked to have come from the British Consulate in Hong Kong, but I just thought 'The spammers are getting really sophisticated these days', and deleted it! The next day I was contacted with similar messages via Facebook and Gwulo.com, and luckily I did call, and it was good news!
Achievement or contribution of a very “hands-on” service to the community in a local geographical area.
This might take the form of sustained commitment in support of very local charitable and/or voluntary activity; or innovative work that has delivered real impact but that is relatively short (three to four years) in duration.
Presentations of BEMs are made locally.
Thank you to all the contributors who have given their time and research to Gwulo. This award recognises all our work that has gone into building Gwulo into the resource that it has become.
Wishing you all the best for the new year ahead,
David
P.S. I was asked who nominated me for this. I don't know, but a very big thank you to them. (I like to think the nomination happened after King Charles was reminiscing about visiting Hong Kong, and found us after googling for family photos ...)
The 1943 Preliminary British Repatriation List is a document prepared by the Japanese, listing people to be repatriated from Stanley Camp and why they were chosen. The repatriation never went ahead.
HCIIL has uploaded several stereoview cards. There's an example below and you can see many more here.
Roman Catholic cathedral at Hong Kong, China, by HCIIL
Alan has been identifying signatures from the Day Joyce sheet which Ms Day Joyce embroidered during internment in wartime Hong Kong. There's an example below, and you can see the others here.
Florence Robinson's signature on the Day Joyce Sheet, by Alan Ho
Take a trip around the harbour via this set of colour slides from 1970. It’ll be two more years before the first cross-harbour tunnel opens, so we’ll be travelling by sampan and ferry.