1950s Hong Kong - 1,000+ photos from the 367 Association

Here are a few highlights from the 1,000+ photos of 1950s Hong Kong that have recently been added to Gwulo. You can find out more about where they came from at the bottom of the page.

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City scenes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RAF Little Sai Wan

 

 

 

 

 

The neighborhood - Chai Wan, Lyemun and Shau Kei Wan

 

 

 

Other RAF sites

 

 

 

 

Further afield

 

 

The exciting RAF life!

 

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I asked Andrew if he could explain the background to this collection:

 

The 367 Association Gallery

Between 1946 and 1962 several thousand young men of the Royal Air Force were lucky enough to spend a year or two as airmen on the 367 Signals Unit in Hong Kong.  Many had been called up to do their two years of National Service.  For virtually all of us, this was the first time we had travelled abroad, and how excited we were to be going to the exotic and far off British colony of Hong Kong. Everything was so different to the drab, post war England that we were leaving, and to travel by B.O.A.C. for three days as my first ever flight was amazing. The weather was nothing like the cold and wet British climate and the sea, even in Winter was far warmer than the Summer seas around Britain.  R.A.F. Little Sai Wan (Siu Sai Wan) was home to most of us and how luxurious our accommodation was compared with the wooden huts that we had been accustomed to in Britain.  Some of us decided to record in pictures and in letters home what we thought would be an unrepeatable experience – not knowing that, years later cheaper air travel would enable some of us to go back for an occasional short holiday and wallow in nostalgia for that experience and, of course, our youth.

The 367 Association was founded back in the 1990s and over the years about 170 old men were sufficiently interested to join and share their memories and photographs.  I was the historian for the Association for some years and I kept an archive of copies of all the photographs that had been lent to me, as well as my own collection. When the Association disbanded a year or so ago, it was agreed that Gwulo would be an ideal place for our photographs to go, and I have been very happy to upload about 1,300 images, hopefully for many other people to enjoy.  Adding titles and comments and trying to work out the locations for some of the members’ images has been difficult, and I am indebted to David and some of his followers for their knowledge and help in coming up with the right answers.

Andrew Suddaby

 

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Thanks to all the members of the 367 Association for sharing their photos with us, and special thanks to Andrew for carefully uploading them to the Gwulo website, cataloguing them and adding comments to explain the scenes. You can click on any of the photos shown above to find out more information about the scenes, then visit the galleries below for many more photos. (If you have any photos of old Hong Kong to share, here's how to upload them to Gwulo.)

Each gallery below shows photos from the named member of the 367 Association. The numbers in brackets show the years they were in Hong Kong.

• All Others (1945-62)
• Anderson, Andy (1957-59)
• Ball, Graham (1954-55)
• Ball, Ted (1953-57)
• Bartlett, Brian (1959-61)
• Bell, Gordon (1953-54)
• Bingham, Jack (1951-53)
• Bodel, (Paddy) Geoff (1958-59)
• Boyd, Chris (1951-52)
• Bridgeman, David (1953-60)
• Burch, Brian (1951-53)
• Burrows, Alan (1949-52)
• Campion, Brian (1951-52)
• Clark, Stephen (1956-57)
• Connell, Bill (1954-55)
• Corkhill, Graham
• Croucher, Ivan (1956-57)
• Cubitt, Jack (1945-47)
• Cunningham, Peter (1953-57)
• Deadman, Bruce (1957-58)
• Dowles, Peter (1959-61)
• Eaves, Tom (1960-62)
• Evans, Trevor (1954-57)
• Fraser, Allan (1951-52)
• Gates, Brian (1955-56)
• Gibbons, Roger (1957-58)
• Gilliams, Roy (1953-55)
• Green, David (1960-61)
• Green, Mick (1959-61)
• Gregory, James (1960)
• Hunt, Albert (1958-59)
• Hunt, Ewart (1952-53)
• Innes, Gordon (1959-61)
• Keeley, Peter (1952-55)
• Kelbie, Frank (1952-54)
• Keyser, Ron (1959-65)
• Macfarlane, Jim (1960-61)
• Mackervoy, Robin (1953-54)
• Morley, Vic (1955-57)
• Mudge, Brian (1957-62)
• Parr, Alan (1960-61)
• Perry, Brian (1957-58)
• Pickard, Frank (1957-58)
• Polatch, Robin (1957-58)
• Prangley, Tony (1957-58)
• Rand, John (1949-52, 1953-55)
• Rees, Len (1946-47)
• Sharpe, Brian (1950-53)
• Sly, Ken (1955-60)
• Smith, Norman (1958-59)
• Spring, David (1957-58)
• Suddaby, Andrew (1957-58)
• Trousdale, Malcolm (1951-53)
• Utting, Brian (1957-59)
• Watson, Bill (1954-55)
• Weild, Bill (1952-53)