Beatrice CHURCH (née MILLS, aka Betty / Boadicea) [1906-1979]

Submitted by David on Thu, 04/05/2018 - 13:33
Names
Given
Beatrice
Family
Church
Maiden
Mills
Alias / nickname
Betty / Boadicea
Sex
Female
Status
Deceased
Born
Date
(Day is approximate.)
Died
Date

Betty Church was mentioned in a recent post asking about the location of Oliver's Mount.

The MMIS has a rather warbly recording of an interview with her from 7th July 1968. She describes a remarkable life. I made the following notes:

  • Father sent to China to build railways
  • Mother followed, and gave birth to Betty in the 1906 typhoon, on board ship between Singapore & Hong Kong
  • Mother died two days later
  • Brought up in Tianjin by Amah, then Shanghai. Accompanied Father on many trips from 4 years old.
  • Speaks Shanghainese, Putonghua, and Cantonese
  • 1812, aged 6 went to school in Shanghai.
  • 1914, aged 8 went to boarding school in England - The Convent of the Visitation, Walmer, Kent
  • Her name was Boadicea
  • Father killed in 1918
  • Her guardian was consul in Amoy. She went to Amoy with her friend, his daughter. Sent to work in HK.
  • Worked in DBS at Breezy Point as a teacher, aged 16/17. Lived at Helena May.
  • Got extra work reading proofs at HK Daily Press. Then started selling advertising from the newspapers.
  • Started writing society column in the newspapers
  • Moved to selling advertising for the Directory & Chronicle
  • Earned enough to travel to UK. Grandmother was ill.
  • 1924 aged 18 Became an advertising agent in UK for Ladies Home Journal, working under Sir Charles Frederick Higham
  • 1925 Started her company in Hong Kong. Became limited company in 1927.
  • First husband worked with Deacons, a lawyer. Left DBS as was pregnant. Child born, and died a year later. Worked as court reporter. Pregnant again, and returned to England to give birth at her parents house in Yorkshire. Gave birth to twins in July, husband died in August on board ship. Worked in London to earn passage back to HK. When twins were two, took them to the convent and they grew up there. Then started her company.
  • In 1927 won a sweepstake ticket for the Shanghai Champions. Won 150,000 Shanghai dollars, or appx 40,000 pounds sterling.
  • Reported in Canton. Saw Europeans tortured by the Chinese. Took photos ad sold them - they were syndicated around the world.
  • Visited UK every two years.
  • 1932. Formed a Friends of China committee
  • Had a Hong Kong stand at Olympia. Prince of Wales.
  • In Singapore with her twins in 1941. Escaped on Friday 13th Feb, 1942 shortly before the surrender on 15th. Boat hit and sunk. Rescued by a submarine and reunited with twins in Batavia.
  • Went to Mr Puckle in Delhi and worked there for 4 months. Then to Bombay, then spent rest of war in South Africa.
  • Husband had been made a POW in Singapore. Married him in New Zealand in 1934. He spoke Japanese. They had a son, but left him in New Zealand. The son re-joined them in Singapore in 1941/2, but he was killed by a Japanese shell during the fighting there.
  • Loves music. Composed and wrote commercial jingles in English & Chinese.

If you can add any more memories of Betty Church, please let us know in the comments below. I'm also curious to know if "Church" was her original surname, or from one of her husbands. 

Photos that show this Person

Wendy Barnes.jpg
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Comments

I met her in 1965 as her advertising agency, the Advertising & Publicity Bureau Ltd (APB) was the advertising agent for a cough lozenge my uncle’s company was selling in Hong Kong. Betty Church and her great rival, Alma Kelly, who owned Cathay Advertising were the two doyens of the Hong Kong advertising business, though by the 1960s they were being strongly challenged by international advertising companies entering the Hong Kong market.

Kind regards,
George

Mr Church was the name of her second husband. I believe her maiden name was Mills. I thought she was Beatrice but she told me she used the name Boadicea as a nickname at school. It certainly suited her. I worked for her in the late '60s. 

 

My parents were good friends of Betty Church and we visited her often at her beautiful house on Mt.  Davis Road which I think was called "Salamat".  Her curry lunches were legendary.

What date was that Adrienne? You are so right - her curry lunches were legendary - tiffins I think she called them. I remember a very tall spare man called the Brigadier - I wish I knew what his name was. And the dogs - do you remember all the dogs... Yes, the house was called Salamat - I stayed with her when I first went to work for her. And she loved the races and had a horse called Jocelyn.

I have just published a memoir of two years I spent in Hong Kong from 1969-1970. I worked for Betty Church at her advertising agency. Much of the book revolves around Betty. She was a very formidable woman and although she has my admiration, I found her terribly difficult - to put it mildly. That aside, I am ever in her debt for the opportunity of two years in Hong Kong at that pivotal time. I describe it in my book as arriving at "... an in-between time - the space between shock and spectre."

 

1931 Beatrice Mary THOMPSON 31 advertising consultant  and Charles Francis Jocelyn Church 49 advertising agent sailed from Southampton to New York

England and Wales National Probate Calendar

Beatrice Mary otherwise Beatrice of Salamat 2A Mount Davis Road Hong Kong died 7 July 1979

1952 Southampton to Hong Kong

Beatrice Mary Church 52 journalist UK addresss Broadgate Millom, Cumberland (?dob)

1954 Southampton to Hong Kong

Beatrice Mary Church 53 journalist address in UK Marble Arch London (?dob)

1958 Arrivals at Southampton from South Africa

Beatrice Mary Church date of birth 9 September 1906 journalist address in UK Manor Road Milford on Sea Hampshire

11 July 1960 Arrivals in Southampton from Hong Kong

Beatrice Church date of birth 9 September 1906, journalist, reason for visiting Uk "on leave" UK address Lymedale Lymington Road Milford on Sea Hampshire

The will of her husband Charles Francis Jocelyn Church appointed Beatrice Mary Church as his executrix and requested that all jewellery which originally belonged to Lady Church should be bequeathed by Beatrice Mary Church to a member or members of the Church family (Carl Smith Card Will 60/1951)) He died 8 May 1950 in Hong Kong.

1911 He was living with his father Charles Marcus Church, Canon of Wells Cathedral, his mother and siblings in Wells. His father was the Principal of the Theological College, Wells, Somerset.

Navy Lists His date of birth is shown as 22 January 1881 in Bristol

1934 New Zealand Marriages Charles Francis Jocelyn Church married Beatrice Mary THOMPSON

There are no records of Thompson twins born in Yorkshire at that period but Jacqueline D E Thompsons and Jeanette B M Thompson were born in Rochford 4a 419 and Rochford 4a 420 registered in September Quarter 1922 and both had a mother with maiden name Mills. Rochford is in Essex Is there any record of the names of her twins?

1925 Passsenger List London to Hong Kong

The following names appear but have been scored through so perhaps they did not actually make the voyage

Mrs Beatrice Thompson 25 advertising agent

Jeanette Thompson age 2

Jacqueline Thompson age 2.

This seems to confirm that she was Beatrice Mary Mills prior to her first marriage and that her twins were born in Rochford Essex not Yorkshire.

The memoir, The Hong Kong Letters, is in The Helena May library.

As the author (Gill Shaddick) says - see post above - there is a lot about Betty Church in it. She draws a fascinating portrait of clearly a remarkable character.

The book is a very good read. Lots of interesting and well known characters pass through its pages.

Ian

Thanks Ian for your lovely comments on my memoir, The Hong Kong Letters, which features Betty Church. I visited the grandaughter of one of the twins who now lives in Scotland when I was in UK last year. I have sent her copies of all the memorabilia and encouraged her to mine the family archives and write a biography of Mrs Church one day, but it might be some time as she has her hands full with children and business at the moment!

I stayed in the Helena May when I was visited Hong Kong twice last year. It was just so special!