John Edward BARROW [1890-1959]

My Great Uncle, John Edward Barrow, was an Engine Room Artificer in the Royal Navy.  In 1919 he was assigned to HMS Titania and he sailed from England to Hong Kong.  According to my family members, he spent a lot of time aboard submarines.  After HMS Titania docked in Hong Kong in April 1920, he left the Royal Navy and settled in Hong Kong.  He began work first at the Hong Kong Engineering Co., which had its premises on Moreton Crescent in Causeway Bay.  One year leater he began work for the China Light and Power Company at the new Hok Un Power Station in the Hung Hom district of Kowloon.  The original Hok Un Power Station is now referred to as the Hok Un 'A' Power Station.  It was replaced by the larger Hok Un 'B' Power Station, which began generating electricity in 1940.  Hok Un 'B' Power Station, after recommissioning in 1945, operated until 1991.  The site of the Hok Un Power Station is now the location of the Laguna Heights residential devedlopment.  He remained in Hong Kong until December 1937, when the political situation had changed and he felt he should leave.  He returned to England and never came back to Hong Kong.  Some of his friends who decided to stay in Hong Kong had very bad experiences during the Japanese Occupation.  I am gradually reconstructing his story from whatever fragments I can find.  The story of HMS Titania here on this website is very interesting.