Please help send these home

Submitted by David on Sun, 05/25/2014 - 10:00

[2016 update: The family have just been in touch, and the photos are on their way home: http://gwulo.com/node/35231]

I bought a collection of photos recently, hoping they'd have lots of views of Hong Kong. Instead they're almost all photos of people, that really belong in a family album. I'd rather see them back with the family, so I'm hoping one of Gwulo's readers can help put them in touch.

We're looking for the family of this lady, Marie Shelley, formerly Marie Baglin:

Marie Shelley

The family were in Hong Kong from the 1930s til the 1960s at least, so I'm hoping someone will remember them. If you know the family, please could you ask them to get in touch? Or if you can add any detail about the photos below, please let us know in the comments below.

Regards,

David.

French ancestors

There are a few older photos, but the Hong Kong connection starts with this one:

Baglin-Dubois family

The person we're interested in is the young lady top-right, as I believe she was Marie's mother. There isn't any date on the back of the photo, but there is a note:

The Beautiful mother & 
Beautiful daughters of
the Baglin - Dubois family
(aristocrats)
(french)
Descendants from Louis Philippe King of FRANCE

Then surprisingly:

Taken one Summers day in Sheffield.

We see her growing up, with photos like this (is it in Paris?):

Ms. Baglin in Europe

The move to Hong Kong

This is the first photo that shows her in Hong Kong:

House opposite HK Sports Ground

and luckily there's a date on the back:

A remettre a Helene
With all my love
Derriere son les H.K.
"Sports grounds" just en
face de chez moi.
Oct 1936 		 For Helene
With all my love
In the background are the H.K.
Sports Grounds, just opposite
where I'm living.
Oct 1936 

Where did she mean by the HK Sports Grounds? Could it have been somewhere in Happy Valley? And what was it that brought her out to Hong Kong?

Baby Marie

Mother & daughter

No date for this photo, but I guess it was taken around 1939/40.

Marie has a Eurasian appearance, so this may have been her father:

Father & daughter ??

Here's another photo of the same man.

Men on steps

Was it an earlier, wedding day photo?

The gateway in the background looks very distinctive. Does anyone recognise the building?

Post-war, and growing up

It's not clear if Marie and her mother stayed in Hong Kong throughout the Japanese occupation, but they were certainly here again soon after the war.

There are photos over a number of years that show this balcony and background:

Balcony

Here's a close-up of the terrace in the background, with a smaller two-storey building in front of it:

Terrace

Does anyone recognise where it was taken?

More photos on the balcony:

Balcony 2

Balcony 3

Balcony 4

The last one has a pencil note "1948 Oct". I guess she is around 9 years old, and is learning ballet.

Next come a couple of photos taken a few years later in the early 1950s:

Party

Party 2

A birthday party perhaps?

Do you recognise any of the faces?

Growing up, and still enjoying dancing:

Unknown building

Ballet

Marriage

The last photo shows her with her husband, Tony Shelley, a policeman:

Marie and Tony Shelley

If you are one of Marie and Tony's children and you'd like to have the photos, please get in touch and I'll put them in the post to you.

Elsewhere on Gwulo.com this week:

Comments

The 3 gentlemen were standing in front of the gate of Po Leung Kuk.

The residential flat was the present location of Bonaventure House (91 Leighton Road) which runs on a 120/300 direction.  You can google map this direction with the address. They were residing on the top floor of a 3 storeyed building with a narrow balcony. The one taken with Marie and her Mum on the balcony was probably taken in the late morning of a September (deduced from the sun shadow angle and the elbow shadow casting). The row of buildiings at the background of the same photo is the present Leighton Centre. To the right hand side of this building would be the iconic Lee Theatre building but unfortunately the lady had blocked its view.

The "Hong Kong sportsground" mentioned by the lady was in fact the South China Sports Association sportground in Caroline Rd. The photo was taken on roof top level of the flat facing the SE direction. I have old photos proofing my deduction but I don't know how top upload the photos here.

Hi octa and moddsey,

What is the small two-storey building with a pointy roof in Photos 8 and 9?

If the sports ground is really the South China Athletic Association, then wouldn't the grandstand be further away from Leighton Road?  Perhaps the photo was taken elsewhere (e.g. a building on Caroline Hill Road)?

I think photo 8 (and 9) was taken on one of the balconies of the 3-storey flats along Leighton Road, and Lee Theatre was at the background.  The pointy structure in the middle left was the former police station (Station No. 1 ?) opposite Lee Theatre ( now the PCCW Building).

Edmond

Leighton Road in 1950s

By comparing the 2 photos of the gentleman holding young Marie and another with the 3 standing in front of Po Leung Kuk, it was probably taken on the same date as seen from the man's outfit. It was not a wedding day photo. It is also not conclusive to say the man was Marie's father. Marie also had a dark coloured hair which resembled her mother's. Po Leung Kuk was just across the road at 10 o'clock position of the residential flat. Can somebody tell me how to upload photo on this site? Thanks.

Octa: to load photos, please follow the instructions on this page:

http://gwulo.com/node/2076

I am awestruck as usual by the detective work by the gwulo community - but if the aim is to get these photos back to the family, we have identified who they are: Marie's son Tony Shelley Jr was in the class of 1974 at KGV, and there are a number of people on the HK60s facebook page who are trying to find him or his sister.

The Chinese gentleman has been confirmed as Marie's father, from a contributor's family photo albums.

Tony Jr also joined the police after school, so as hongkongpom suggests, the"Royal Hong Kong Police Association" may be able to help. Their website:
http://www.rhkpa.org/

Dear David,

I searched from a French internet site and found two related names:-

Shelley Anne Marie and Shelley-Dambrun Anne Marie.

One residing in Dijon and the other about 40 miles south of Dijon. Address and telephone are also available but I don't think I will post up here. You can contact me on octa6109@gmail.com for further details.

Marie should be in her 80s now if still alive.

Updates:

Guy Shirra replied by email. He knew Tony Shelley "... when as a Chief Inspector, he was OC Village Patrol Unit in NT in 1972/3. I was his 2 I/C. They lived in the OCs house next to VPU in Tai Mei Tuk."

Suzanne Kirk and her uncle Lou Gutierrez replied on Facebook. Lou wrote:

I knew Mrs. Shelley before she became Mrs. Shelly. I also knew her as Vicky Baglin, not Marie. She belonged to our group of friends, most of them pictured in the photo Suzanne posted. I left Hong Kong in 1956 for San Francisco. I heard from friends in the group that Tony and Vicky moved to Arizona when Tony retired from the Police Force. I also knew her Mother at the time and the picture was taken at our flat on Carnarvon Road. Vickie and her mother lived around the corner on Hart Ave.

I did some googling following the Arizona lead, but sadly found that Tony passed away in 2011:

Shelley, Anthony (Tony) Thomas

79, of Scottsdale, AZ passed on June 6, 2011 from a long fight with Cancer. A celebration of life will be help at a future date. He was cremated on June 10, 2011 at Messinger Mortuaries. He is survived by his Wife, Vickie Shelley, Daughter, Sharon Hill, Son-in-Law, Kurt Hill, Grandson, Matthew Herrera and Son and Daughter-in-Law Anthony and Linda Shelley. A very close friend Russell Nelson, and most of all he is survived by his friends and golf buddies "The Outlaws". A special Thank You to all of the staff at Eckstein Center for making things as smooth and as comfortable as possible. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/azcentral/obituary.aspx?n=anthony-thomas-shelley-tony&pid=151785246#sthash.3UYIIiy9.dpuf

So the lady in the photos is known as Vickie not Marie.

Guy Shirra also suggested the RHKPA and will contact them, so hopefully someone there will be in touch with one of the children.

Thanks for everyone's help,

Regards, David

This is the only reference i could find in the RHK Police Magazine. Spring 1968 edition.

Tony Shelley leaves us for home leave in August and we all wish him a good holiday. Any rumours you may have heard of his attempt to convert the middle r ailings in Nathan Road into a Scooter track we now wish to deny.

I searched Vicki's name in a name search web of US but was not able to locate her presence. However, I managed to find her son Anthony's info. He is now 58 years old and lives in Scottsdale near Pheonix of Arizona and with relative named Linda (wife). I did not sign in the web page to go further for their full details. The web URL is [ www. mylife.com], just type in the name and the address will suffice.

This is most definitely in Paris, just in front of the Louvre, i just live there.

Descendant of the king of France ? I could believe that, judging from her remarkably bourbonesque facial features.

Hi C,

Your post of 26-5-2014 raised the possibility that the photo of Mrs. Baglin/Dubois sitting beside the SCAA grandstand was taken on Caroline Hill Road. The photo at;

http://via.lib.harvard.edu/via/deliver/fullRecordDisplay?_collection=via&inoID=147418&recordNumber=124&fullgridwidth=5&method=view&recordViewFormat=grid

confirms your theory. You can zoom in to see the grandstand at the bottom left of the sports field with Caroline Hill Road running past it. The building in which they lived on Leighton Road can also be seen. The proximity of the SCAA to their home explains her caption, "In the background are the HK Sports Grounds, just opposite my home."

 

Apologies for the link in my last post not working. To see the photo go to;

http://gwulo.com/hedda-morrison-1946-1947-hong-kong-photos

Once there, take the link at the end of the first para. to the website of the Harvard Library.

In the top line, first box type "hedda morrison", and select "anywhere" in the second box.

In the second line, first box type "hong kong", and select "place" in the second box.

Click "search" and it brings you to a collection of 309 photos. The one I was referring to is on Page 9, top line, second from the right, wrongly entitled "View of Hapy Valley stretching towards..."