New on Gwulo: 2024, week 04

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:
 

General

• Meet Delfino NORONHA [1824-1900], one of the leading lights of Hong Kong's Portuguese community in the 19th century. The biography is written by Stuart Braga, Noronha's great-great grandson.
   
• Back in 2014 I posted 110 years of Hong Kong Trams in photos, showing how the appearance of Hong Kong's famous trams had changed since they first started running in 1904. I grouped trams into 'generations', according to the big changes in how they looked.
  Ten years have passed, so to celebrate the trams' next big birthday Joseph Tse has posted Hong Kong Tram types - entering 120 years. You'll see his new article updates how the generations are defined, using the same system that has been adopted by HK Tramways.
   
• After the recent newsletter looking at Jan Jan's Map of Hong Kong from 1958, WYIP has kindly uploaded his copy of this slightly newer map, Sun Sun's Street Map of Hong Kong from 1967. Here's a section, showing the area around Happy Valley:
  

  

• We don't often get to hear of events in WW2 from the Japanese viewpoint, so it is very interesting to read Keiji Makimura's memories of the Japanese surrender, available in Japanese, and translated into English.
   
• Sorry if you received two copies of last week's newsletter. For some reason the newsletter mailing service decided to send it out two days running. Fingers crossed it returns to its usual behaviour with this newsletter.
   
• Thank you to the seventeen new patrons who responded to last week's newsletter, and have signed up to support Gwulo  - I appreciate your help! (I was asked why the link to become a patron took them to another website called 'Patreon'. Patreon is the company whose service I use to manage collecting your contributions.)
   
• Thank you to volunteers David, Grace, joybot, simoncopley, and wingcli2015 for typing up the Jurors Lists for 1870, 1882, 1883, and 1892.
   
• Readers ask:
  • Daughter is trying to find out what happened to her late mother Betty Mary Theresa LLOYD OR XAVIER (née HO) [1922-????]
     
  • Which hotels could have been used as Naval Officers' accomodation in the early 1930s?
     
  • ​​​​Who made up the Stanley Camp tribunal in 1945?
     
  • Tower Records opens in Hong Kong in the 90's - which year?
     
  • What did 7, Victory Avenue in Ho Man Tin look like in the 1950s?
     
  • What were the REME Light Aid Detachment doing in Hong Kong in 1956-57?
     
  • Looking for information about:
    • service records and / or insignia of the R.N. Dockyard H.K. Fire Brigade, & Hong Kong Fire Brigade
       
    • 1967 riots primary sources
       
    • the Japanese Community in Hong Kong
       
    • Moritz Freimann who was licensee of the the Land We Live In Hotel / Tavern from 1899
       
    • William Barker, who arrived in Hong Kong in 1904
       
    • the Shirazee sisters
       

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Updates on the new Gwulo book

Some good news with Volume 5 is that airmail services are working well again. The last few overseas orders have gone to customers in Australia, UK, and the US, and all have arrived in under two weeks. The last few years have seen all sorts of headaches with overseas mail, so it is great to see shipping times get back to their pre-Covid standards.

Thank you to two of those overseas readers for their reviews. Patricia O'Sullivan has posted her review of Volume 5 to her website, and also lets us know her favourite photo in the book. For the record, my favourite is this one at the bottom of page 21:

 

Thanks also to new reader jenchou, who dived in with a purchase of the full set of five books:

The existence of the 5 volumes of Old Hong Kong Photos and The Tales They Tell came to my attention on Facebook via the Hong Kong - The Past page. I jumped on the website and ordered the books less than a week ago and they were delivered this morning!! So speedy and the books arrived in impeccable condition.
 

Each book and the photos are most beautifully produced to the highest quality. They worth every single penny!  In the fast changing world and the Hong Kong I knew disappearing fast, to have a glimpse into the old Hong Kong before I was even born keeps Hong Kong alive in my heart.

Closer to home, Hong Kong readers can now find Volume 5 at these additional bookstores:

• Art & Culture Outreach Books, in Causeway Bay
   
• SUP Retail (Hong Kong) Limited, better known by the names of its bookstores: Joint Publishing / Chung Hwa Book Co. / The Commercial Press. They also run an online bookstore, My Book One

 

And finally, thanks to Jill Fell who has reported the first mistake in Volume 5. If you've noticed any other mistakes, please could you add a comment for each mistake with details? Then I can be sure to get them all corrected when it is time for a reprint.
 

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People

• Can anyone identify the couple and the guests at this wedding?

  

   

• John Alexander FRASER [1896-1943] never incriminated anyone else despite being tortured, then finally executed. He was posthumously awarded the George Cross for his bravery.
  

  

   

• Phyllis HARROP [????-????] escaped from occupied Hong Kong
   
• Archibald DAVID (aka Archie / Mr. Knoll / Mr. Gilpin) [????-????], businessman in Hong Kong, and also a jockey
   
• Ian MCELVIE [c.1931-2020], born in HK, evacuated to Australia, returned to HK to work with HK Electric until he retired.
   
• Helen June SANCHEZ (née KEW, aka Helena) [1908-1987], and daughter Victoria Frances Eleanor MCEVOY (née SANCHEZ, aka Vicky) [1945-2023]
   
• Ivy V. HARRISON (née TAYLOR, aka Leila) [1930-2019] and husband John Richard Eastley HARRISON [1924-2000]
   
• Reginald MARTIN (aka Reg) [1930- ]
   
• Gordon BENDALL [1936- ], born Hong Kong, evacuated to Australia, returned to Hong Kong in 1948 and attended KGV School
   
• Isaac Silas HARDOUN [1891-????], interned in Stanley Camp with his family
   
• Seamen aboard the Admiral Y.S. Williams, an American freighter in dry dock at Hong Kong in December 1941, were captured after the fall of Hong Kong on December 25, 1941. Their experiences followed two different paths:
  • imprisoned at Sham Shui Po as POWs
    • William LINDGREN [????-????], ship's carpenter
    • John Robert MAULONIS [1904-????], bosun
    • Irving MICHAELSON [????-????], chief steward
    • Carl Twed NIELSEN [1902-????], messman
    • Fredrik Ingeman NYSTROM (aka Fred) [1877-1946], captain
    • Jakob Albert Thor OLSEN [????-????], third mate
    • Halfdan Olaus PEDERSEN [????-????], first engineer
    • Martin RANDEBERG [c.1883-????], first mate
    • Mark Francis RILEY [????-????], able-bodied seaman
    • Ivar SANDSTROM [????-????], second mate
    • Alva Victor WHITE [1892-????], third engineer
       
  • interned as civilians at Stanley Camp, then repatriated in 1942
    • Harold P. RAVN [c.1911-????], seaman
    • Gustav H. SUNDBERG (aka Gus) [c.1904-????], seaman
    • Howard E. SWANEY [c.1911-????], seaman
    • Harry C. WARD [c.1901-????], seaman
    • Compton DeMetselaer WISEMAN [c.1920-1958], seaman, after repatriation joined OSS

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Places

• A list of Hong Kong's letter boxes in 1898
   
• Hong Kong Island
  
  • The Summer House, The Stone House, Kellett Manor [c.1901-c.1992]
     
  • Whitty Street Tram Depot [????- ]
• Kowloon
  • CCC Kei Chi Secondary School [????- ]
     

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Photos
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Click to see all recently added photos.