1938 Victoria Harbour

Fri, 12/21/2018 - 14:04
Date picture taken
30 May 1938
Author(s)

Comments

I believe my father Gordon Bevan took this photo in 1938 as I appear to have the original. He was one of a small number of  RAF personnel on board  the County Class cruiser HMS Kent. This ship was part of the 5th Cruiser Squadron, China Station. He was a Wireless Operator Mechanic and also took photographs.  

Thank you for the information.

The photo appears to have been available to naval personnel who served with the fleet at the time. Not sure if it is actually a naval photograph or commercial photograph as copies of it have previously come up for sale at major auction sites indicating different dates from 1937 to 1939. Mine showed 1937 but have pushed it to 1938 based on physical locations seen in the photograph.

Would by chance your photograph provide a date and the identification of the naval vessels in the harbour ?

The photo also appears in: http://www.croiseur-lamotte-picquet.fr/index.php?page=hong (website of the French cruiser "Lamotte-Picquet")

 

Thank you for your interesting reply.

According to my father's RAF record he transferred from 101 Bomber Squadron to 715 Sqdn at Lee on Solent 8th of March 1938 where he joined the Kent. I believe the photo was taken in 1938. 

I sent a copy of the picture to World Naval Ships.com a few years ago and received the following responses which give some information regarding the vessels in the photo. Unfortunately the forum is no longer active which is a shame as I wished to contact a chap on there whose father was also RAF and on the Kent at the same time.  He would certainly have known my dad.

 
I have just joined after stumbling onto this forum whilst researching my father's time with 715 Catapult Squadron.Like RAFApp56's father he was one of the handful of RAF chaps looking after the Walrus on HMS Kent. My father, Gordon Bevan was the Wireless Operator Mechanic on the Kent from 1938 till being badly injured when the ship was bombed by the Italians when returning from the far east back to European Waters.I was very interested to read Sandy McAuslen's post with the Kent's itineray during this period as my father mentioned many of the places visited, in his later years.I remember him telling me they spent one day in Perth, Australia. Being an old aircraft enthusiast I have been trying to trace the serial number of the Walrus my father worked and flew on and am grateful to Sandy for the information that it was L2243. I have attached some photos taken by my dad at the time including one of the Walrus just off the catapult. Unfortunately the quality isn't great and the serial is blurred but I think it probably is L2243. A couple of the pictures show the RAF bods on board at the time and maybe RAFApp56's father is among them. I would be great to have it confirmed.There are also a couple of pictures of the Kent@s 1938 Christmas card. Co-incidentally my late father-in-law was in the RN and also served on the Kent, China Station but in 1934 and I have attached a picture taken by him, Harry Libby, of the Kent illuminated to celebrate the Duke of Kent's birthday that year. Being an RAF chap my father was not impressed by being given 7 days Jankers by the navy for missing pay parade. Especially as one of his duties was developing the reconnaissance photos taken by the Walrus and the reason for him not attending was that the photos would have been destroyed. But I suppose that was navy logic for you!
Attachments :

Attachment 1

Attachment 2

Attachment 3

Attachment 4

Attachment 5

Attachment 6

Attachment 7

Attachment 8

Attachment 9


Further to my previous post, I have found a couple more photos. One taken by my Dad of the Kent and other ships in Hong Kong Harbour and one of the crew fraternising with the Siamese Navy in Bangkok. March 1939. The picture of Hong Kong Harbour I have had to split as I couldn't download it in one hit. A bit too wide I think..
Attachments :

Attachment 1

Attachment 2

Attachment 3


Planemad - thanks for posting the photos. Sadly KENT doesn't appear in the photos in post #108; from left to right the last two photos show a "D" class cruiser (?), the base ship HMS TAMAR (in the basin with awnings rigged), a "D" class destroyer (probably DUNCAN, the leader of the 8th Destroyer Flotilla), a Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), either SUFFOLK or CUMBERLAND (the two were nearly identical at this stage), two more "D" class destroyers, a river gunboat, another RFA, DIAMOND, another "D" class destroyer, either CUMBERLAND or SUFFOLK, DAINTY and EAGLE.


Planemad, Thank you for posting the cracking sets of photos. Much appreciated. Any more?


[QUOTE=tjstoneman;10123046]...from left to right the last two photos show a "D" class cruiser (?), the base ship HMS TAMAR (in the basin with awnings rigged), a "D" class destroyer (probably DUNCAN, the leader of the 8th Destroyer Flotilla), a Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), either SUFFOLK or CUMBERLAND (the two were nearly identical at this stage), two more "D" class destroyers, a river gunboat, another RFA, DIAMOND, another "D" class destroyer, either CUMBERLAND or SUFFOLK, DAINTY and EAGLE.[/QUOTE] The two RFAs might be [i]Appleleaf[/i] and [i]Pearleaf[/i] which were both attached to the Hong Kong station from 1934/5 onwards, but I'm not sure why they appear to have different hull colours. The original (1920s) colour scheme for RFAs at Hong Kong involved grey hulls and upperworks but in 1937 the RFA fleet adopted a uniform colour scheme of black hull and grey upperworks, subject to the discretion of the local CinC. Nowadays, a complete repaint would probably be undertaken as part of a major refit, but in those far-flung days of Empire, Jenny's Side Party could probably have done the job in less than a week, so it's hard to imagine why different colours would be tolerated, unless one of the two RFAs is a temporary visitor. Any suggestions? Ted [Sources: Sigwart, E. E., [i]Royal Fleet Auxiliary[/i] (Adlard Coles 1969); Adams, Thomas A. and James R. Smith, [i]The Royal Fleet Auxiliary: A Century of Service[/i] (Chatham Publishing 2005)]


[QUOTE=tjstoneman;10123046]Planemad - thanks for posting the photos. Sadly KENT doesn't appear in the photos in post #108; from left to right the last two photos show a "D" class cruiser (?), the base ship HMS TAMAR (in the basin with awnings rigged), a "D" class destroyer (probably DUNCAN, the leader of the 8th Destroyer Flotilla), a Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), either SUFFOLK or CUMBERLAND (the two were nearly identical at this stage), two more "D" class destroyers, a river gunboat, another RFA, DIAMOND, another "D" class destroyer, either CUMBERLAND or SUFFOLK, DAINTY and EAGLE.[/QUOTE] Planemad -- [B]LOVELY SET OF PHOTOS![/B] Maybe taken from the tower of Anglican Cathedral at Hong Kong; If we had a slightly higher resolution scan, we 'd be able to get the pendant numbers of the destroyers... From the movements of EAGLE, CUMBERLAND and SUFFOLK, one can narrow the dates down quite a bit: the only three periods when all of these vessels were at Hong Kong appear to be 14-15 October 1937, 31 December 1937-8 January 1938 and 23 -30 May 1938. DANAE was the last D class cruiser on the China Station in the inter-war period, and she left for home on 14 January 1938, so we can probably rule out the third period. KENT was not arrive on station until September 1938.


I hope this is of interest

Kind Regards

 

Thank you very much for your swift reply, identification of the vessels and time-frame of the Hong Kong harbour photos. Cheers!