Kialung Wan Cemetery, Victoria Mortuary, and the HK Death & Birth Registration Bureau

Submitted by ssuni86 on Wed, 06/05/2019 - 23:46

I've been reading some archival documents circa 1946 and have been left with a few questions that I hope Gwulo readers can help me with.

1.) Kialung Wan Cemetery: Where is (or was) this cemetery in Hong Kong?  Does it still exist and has its name changed?  Are there alternate spellings of "Kialung Wan"?

2.) Victoria Mortuary: Was this in Kennedy Town in 1946?  Was "Victoria Mortuary" the official name?

3.) Hong Kong Death and Birth Registration Bureau: Where was this organization housed (as in what address) in 1946?  In English, was "Hong Kong Death and Birth Registration Bureau" the official name for this organization?

Any and all replies will be helpful.  Thanks! 

--Steve

1) Kialung Wan - should refer to Kai Lung Wan (Kellett Bay) Cemetery on Hong Kong Island near Pok Fu Lam. It was a Chinese public cemetery and subsequently demolished to make way for public housing estates in the 1960s.

2) Victoria Mortuary - should be the Victoria Public Mortuary in Kennedy Town. Even with relocation, the mortuary has been in Kennedy Town

Many thanks, Moddsey.  This information is most helpful, particularly the part about the cemetery getting replaced by a public housing estate.  That explains why I couldn't find the cemetery on a 2019 map!

The spelling discrepency (Kialung vs. Kai Lung) is not surprising, as the documents I am reading were typed up by US military personnel who did not know Hong Kong and did not speak Cantonese.

 

Hi Steve, the location of the current mortuary was still the sea in 1946 - it hadn't been reclaimed yet!

The location of the mortuary in 1946 would have been the location linked to above. You can trace it at that location for several more years in the maps at http://www.hkmaps.hk/mapviewer.html

Regards, David

Thanks for the additional info, David!

So, based on what we know thus far, it sounds like the Victoria Public Mortuary of 1946 could not have been located on the site of the present-day mortuary in Kennedy Town.

However, I figured the mortuary c. 1946 was named for its location on Victoria Road.  Is it possible the mortuary was then located along Victoria Road, possibly along the stretch that parallels Sai Ning Street?  This would mean that the facility on Hill Road was an entirely different facility. 

Does this sound like a plausible theory?      

The official name for the urban area on the north shore of HK island was the City of Victoria (see https://gwulo.com/hong-kong-victoria-city-boundary).

So the Victoria Public Mortuary was the Public Mortuary for the City of Victoria. At that time the other big urban area was Kowloon, so over on that side of the harbour you'd expect to find a Kowloon Public Mortuary.