The site of the Lo Wu Saddle Club is a new one, it used to be located within Lo Wu Camp its self. The current site (Where the sign is) used to be the football pitch. It was also used for the dressage and show jumping on competition days.
Actually the saddle club has two sites straddling the road. The large paddock with this sign on the southern side of the road and the small paddock/stable area/office on the north side of the road.
The north side also used to have a similar sign but I suspect it was removed when the upper site was redeveloped specifically for the club.
Edit: perhaps there is still more than one sign. I took this one a few weeks ago, it is on the fence of the lower paddock:
So, does this mean that the old Lo Wu Camp site is where the detention centre now stands - as marked in the map above?
I was with the 15 Observation Battery of the Royal Artillery which for some five months occupied the tented camp from early February 1950. Below Crest Hill and its observation post, the site had been a base for the British Military for many years. Following the outset of the Korean War the unit moved to other quarters in the New Territories, being shipped to Korea before the end of the year. I had returned to Britain in the summer of 1950, returning to Lo Wu forty years later. The tented camp had been replaced by a detention centre for boat people escaped from other parts of South East Asia. Subsequently, the boat people's camp enclosed by barbed wire was succeeded by a Correctional Centre providing no freedom, but probably better living conditions and facilities than enjoyed previously by either British troops or the boat people.
The Correctional Centre of 2018 occupies the site of the largely tented British Army camp in which as a National Serviceman I lived under canvas with the 15 Observation Battery, Royal Artillery, from February to early summer 1950. On YouTube can be found a brief Pathe Newsreel under the title Hong Kong (1949), which shows at 1:22 a flight of four Spitfires in the air parallel to the frontier with the newly founded People's Republic. Below the aircraft and the line of frontier hills beyond is the Lo Wu camp where I came to occupy one of the tents just a few months later. A full account of the National Service of John Flann, who arrived in the camp at the same time, can also be found online.
Lo Wu Camp was still operational in 1980. It was the base for the operation Culex in late 1980.
"Op Culex was the name for support of the Hong Kong government in stemming the tide of illegal immigrants from the People's Republic of China. This was a Sisyphean task until the HK government ended the policy of granting residence permits to those who managed to make it to HK Island. Numbers dropped dramatically after that." (Source)
HQ Company Heaquarters, Lo Wu Camp, New Territories, Hong Kong 1980, by Torfaen Corvine
Swimming Pool, Lo Wu Camp, New Territories, Hong Kong 1980, by Torfaen Corvine
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re: Lo Wu Camp
details and photo here: http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/hongkong_china/hkc04_1.shtml
Lo Wu Saddle club
opposite the saddle club, next to the large paddock, there is still an old M.O.D signboard standing. I'll try and grab a snap next time I am there.
Sign at Lo Wu Saddle Club
The site of the Lo Wu Saddle Club is a new one, it used to be located within Lo Wu Camp its self. The current site (Where the sign is) used to be the football pitch. It was also used for the dressage and show jumping on competition days.
Lo Wu Saddle CLub
Actually the saddle club has two sites straddling the road. The large paddock with this sign on the southern side of the road and the small paddock/stable area/office on the north side of the road.
The north side also used to have a similar sign but I suspect it was removed when the upper site was redeveloped specifically for the club.
Edit: perhaps there is still more than one sign. I took this one a few weeks ago, it is on the fence of the lower paddock:
So, does this mean that the old Lo Wu Camp site is where the detention centre now stands - as marked in the map above?
Lo Wu
Yes thats correct.
If you use the history slider on Google Earth you can see the old camp in all its glory :-)
Lo Wu Camp
Well I never... :-)
I hadn't realised the detention centre was so new, but it appears to have been constructed around 2007.
Lo Wu Camp in the 1950s
Moddsey writes:
Life of a gunner at Lo Wu Camp in 1950 as seen here
Lo Wu camp
I was with the 15 Observation Battery of the Royal Artillery which for some five months occupied the tented camp from early February 1950. Below Crest Hill and its observation post, the site had been a base for the British Military for many years. Following the outset of the Korean War the unit moved to other quarters in the New Territories, being shipped to Korea before the end of the year. I had returned to Britain in the summer of 1950, returning to Lo Wu forty years later. The tented camp had been replaced by a detention centre for boat people escaped from other parts of South East Asia. Subsequently, the boat people's camp enclosed by barbed wire was succeeded by a Correctional Centre providing no freedom, but probably better living conditions and facilities than enjoyed previously by either British troops or the boat people.
Correctional Centre Lo Wu
The Correctional Centre of 2018 occupies the site of the largely tented British Army camp in which as a National Serviceman I lived under canvas with the 15 Observation Battery, Royal Artillery, from February to early summer 1950. On YouTube can be found a brief Pathe Newsreel under the title Hong Kong (1949), which shows at 1:22 a flight of four Spitfires in the air parallel to the frontier with the newly founded People's Republic. Below the aircraft and the line of frontier hills beyond is the Lo Wu camp where I came to occupy one of the tents just a few months later. A full account of the National Service of John Flann, who arrived in the camp at the same time, can also be found online.
Hong Kong (1949)
Here's the Pathe Newsreel video:
Lo Wu Camp 1980
Lo Wu Camp was still operational in 1980. It was the base for the operation Culex in late 1980.
"Op Culex was the name for support of the Hong Kong government in stemming the tide of illegal immigrants from the People's Republic of China. This was a Sisyphean task until the HK government ended the policy of granting residence permits to those who managed to make it to HK Island. Numbers dropped dramatically after that." (Source)