Pg.78: Constabulary Duties

Mon, 09/22/2014 - 21:55

The community of former Hong Kong police officers now in retirement, and scattered around the world, share a common bond of pride in their profession and are in regular contact with each other via the internet and the Royal Hong Kong Police Association in London. The information they have contributed helped to date the scene on the left, which shows Shau Kei Wan Police Station in the 19th century.

Shau Kei Wan takes its name from the Chinese word for a colander, whose concave profile the bay was once said to resemble. It was subsequently named Aldrich Bay, after a British naval captain stationed there, and has now long been reclaimed. Local fishermen discovered that the bay provided a good shelter from typhoons and at the time of the first census in 1841 the head count stood at some 200 – roughly five percent of Hong Kong Island’s total population.

By 1860, piracy became a major concern, prompting Governor Sir Richard Macdonnell to crack down on crime and revitalise the area. Roads were laid and more stable accommodation built, together with a police station to help the authorities combat piracy.


Notes:

Date picture taken
1890s

Comments

As far as I know, and as Jason Wordie says here, Aldrich was a Colonel in the Royal Engineers, not a Navy captain.

[edit: 80skid beat me to it!!]

Adam,

I looked in Google Books and they have several mentions of him in Hong Kong in the early 1840s, describing him as 'Major Aldrich, commanding engineer'. He may well have been promoted to Colonel by the time he retired.

He was a contemporary of Collinson, and Collinson's 1845 map shows "Aldrich's Bay", so we should be talking about the same Aldrich. Thanks for the catch.

Aldrich gets a brief mention in another book, in a letter from R.M. Martin, Colonial Treasurer, complaining about the money wasted on the development of Hong Kong. It continues:

"No money, talent, or energy can ever make Hong Kong worthy the name of a British colony."

I wonder if Martin lived long enough to change his mind?

Regards, David