South African replica of old house

Submitted by Compradore on Fri, 07/17/2015 - 20:21

harryhktc, I saw your comment on another topic and just wanted to follow up with you on it.  That previous topic you commented on will likely be deleted.

I too had heard a rumour about a former corporate executive taking plans of his company residence with him upon retirement.  I didn't think I would see it mentioned again some 40-years later.

Difficult question, but do you remember where you heard the rumour?  I seem to recall reading it in an old issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review, though my memory of that is unclear at best. 

I always thought it was a former executive of Shell.  However, since multiple sources confirmed that Mr. C. A. Male did indeed retire to South Africa in the early-1970s, I trust your memory more than mine.  It looks like he retired towards the latter half of 1974.

His successor as General Manager of HK Telephone was named F. I. Walker.  Thus far, I have not been able to locate either gentleman's address in directories to narrow down if the house was on Deep Water Bay Road or Repulse Bay Road.

 

 

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Compradore - yes, unfortunately my comments were probably deleted as they were in response to a post by HK88 regarding Repulse Bay Road mansions. It was rumoured - but of course not confirmed -  amongst the HK Telephone Company expatriate staff that Charlie Male took plans of his Repulse Bay house (along with his Secretary) to South Africa when he retired in 1974.

Seem to recall it being an odd number - 57,75 or similar - with a grey stone walled driveway leading up from Repulse Bay Road. Most expat allocated properties in those days were owned either by the Company or HK Land.

H.

Interesting to know if a replica was ever built ?

Thanks, Harry.  I will narrow my search to Repulse Bay Road.  I looked at Deep Water Bay because I know HK Land owned property there during the time period in question; its early-1970s annual reports mentioned the redevelopment of Deepdene and houses on Island Road.

It seems both C.A. Male and F.L. (Eric) Walker worked in Africa.  Male was definitely an important executive there before he was scouted to become HK Telephone general manager.  I am not sure if Walker worked in Africa before or after his tenure in HK.  If I can track down a copy of Walker's autobiography, there may be some clues in there.

Today there is no 57 Repulse Bay Road.  In the late-1960s, when Male should already have been in HK, 75 Repulse Bay was occupied by a Chinese resident.  No. 75 has always been tucked away and not right on the waterfront.

The 1960's and 70's saw vast expansion of HKTC's underground network involving large capacity copper-cored cables. A legacy of C. Male's tenure was his foresight in purchasing quantities of copper 'futures' which enabled the Company to purchase cable at a stablised price despite the rising price of copper.

Together with his house plans, a shrewd move.

H.

Could the old address have been No. 89 Repulse Bay?  I looked around and I reckon that may be the most likely location.

The lot is elevated and the house sits quite a lot higher than Repulse Bay Road below.  There is a big stone wall next to the gate and driveway at the right hand side of the picture ( http://static.apple.nextmedia.com/images/apple-photos/apple/20130720/la… ).  Google Streetview shows the full length and height of that wall

There wasn't a No. 57 because the lot for Eucliffe (No. 58 in that era) was huge, over 100,000 sq. ft. including the government extension land. 

The houses at No. 73, 75, 77 do not have long driveways because the lots are smaller.  The recently demolished house at No. 73 was built in the 1940s and No. 77 in 1955, so that section of road would have looked much the same in the 1970s than it does today on Streetview

Don't think so, Compradore. My ageing memory is of a 'mansion' not so grand as the one pictured in the link. A HKTC manager prior to C.Male was Mr. (Gus) Cattanach (not sure of the spelling) who most probably occupied the house in the earlier 1960's. H.

Sorry for not being clear in my previous post, Harry.  I forgot to mention that the house you see in the link was built in the 2000s.  If I remember 88hk's post correctly, he wrote that the grand mansion there today was built in 2001.

I was hoping that you recognized the wall next to the gate.  It is possible that wall was there during Male's time in HK because the site of No. 89 must have always been elevated from the road.

It is odd that I cannot any previous HK Telephone general managers in old Hong Kong $ Directories.

No luck finding the HK Telephone house, but found that in the 1960s the Cable & Wireless, Far East Manager's resided at No. 45 Repulse Bay.  The single-block Ming Wai Gardens was completed in '73 on the site.

I am surprised because I thought most British taipans of the era lived on The Peak. 

Many thanks for your efforts, Compradore. The wall didn't ring any bells, I'm afraid. The HKTC did have a complete apartment block on The Peak - named 'Modreenagh' - where quite a few (non-taipan ! ) expats were accommodated. . Living there qualified them for a 'free' dehumidifier...... ! H.

Harry, thanks to your Modreenagh comment, I think I found the address of the old house.  It was likely No. 37 Repulse Bay Road.

I remembered Modreenagh was sold in 2004 because I passed by before demolition.  I didn't know it was a former HKT block, so I searched for more info about their ownership.  It seems the company that sold in '04 had purchased it in '91 and kept the original (1951) building for rental purposes - that was when I remembered reading about HK Telecom disposing some properties after the '88 merger.

While I could not confirm that HKT was the seller in '91, I took a quick look at Repulse Bay buildings that were completed in early-1990s.  No. 37 was built in 1994 and a 1991 directory mentioned the Managing Director of Hongkong Telephone as the resident; he must have been the last occupant before the house was sold.

Now that I have the house name, I found it in a 1960s directory: A. J. Cattanach - 'Ballafreer', 37 Repulse Bay Road.  When I had searched only the street name and number, I could not find the same directory entry.  Frustrating!  HKT chairman H. R. Cleland's address was 18 Shek O.

Since Ballafreer was elevated from Repulse Bay Rd, it will be hard to get a clear picture.  Pictures taken from the Ocean Park cable car show the old house from a considerable distance and it had a white exterior, flat roof, with what looked like an attached garage or servants quarters. 

Difficult to see, but the house looked smaller than I imagined.  The apartment there today is three-blocks of 23-stories each and probably 200,000 sq. ft. in total gross floor area, so the Ballafreer site must have been huge unless the developer joined it with another lot for redevelopment.