Frederick James Duncan CLEMO (aka Freddie) [1922-1999]

Submitted by Admin on Mon, 01/03/2022 - 12:41
Names
Given
Frederick James Duncan
Family
Clemo
Alias / nickname
Freddie
Sex
Male
Status
Deceased
Born
Date
Birthplace (country)
Hong Kong
Died
Date

[Update: I originally titled this page 'R. Clemo', based on the 1940 newspaper clipping with his photo. It has since been confirmed that the young man in the photo was Frederick James Duncan Clemo, so I've updated the details.]

Extracts from his obituary:

  • Born in HK
  • Educated in Britain
  • In 1941, fought with the HKVDC, then imprisoned as a POW
  • Postwar, worked in China
  • Moved to Manila in 1950 where he later founded several companies including Acquila and Pandiman

Tags

Connections: This person is ...
Child of
Frederick Charles CLEMO [1897-1975]
Elizabeth Whittaker CLEMO (née TOLLAN, aka Betty) [1901-1988]

Photos that show this Person

Imperial Airways passenger-Master R. CLEMO
1940

Comments

I would like to have more information about the son of F.C. Clemo, with the purpose of connecting with him if he is  available.

I had met him when he was working in CL & Power PLant, I presume when his father was the Plant Suerintendent, and I was an appentice at the Hongkong & Whampoa Dockyard, next door to the :Power PLant.

I would be most grateful to rceive any available information. 

I remember reading the article about young Clemo's return to Hong Kong in January 1940.

Hong Kong Telegraph 9 January 1940 refers

There was a joyful reunion between Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Clemo and their 18 year old son Fred who flew in from Southampton on the Imperial Airways flight on 8 January. He had been attending Bedford College and had left Hong Kong five years ago. Young Clemo has the distinction of being the first schoolboy to make the air trip from England to Hong Kong.

(Not sure if Fred was his nickname or short for Frederick like his father. That said, simiilar to the Sunday Herald article, the Hong Kong Daily Press also gives his name as R. Clemo about his return to Hong Kong. I think R. Clemo may well be Frederick James Duncan Clemo as mentioned here The year of birth of the latter seems to match.)

 

Bedford College in the 1960s when I visited there, was an engineering-based college if I remember correctly. The teaching Labs./Workshops were full of engineering items related to the world-renowned engineering companies in the town such as W.H. Allen etc.

Young Clemo would have been well-educated in engineering terms to follow in his father’s profession with China Light & Power.

His flight with Imperial Airways would have cost in the order of 167 GB Pounds at the time.                                                       (I’m not sure what that would equate to these days?)

His flight from Southampton would have been by flying boat with multiple stops to Bangkok, then a change of aircraft to the branch-line De Havilland DH 86 to Hong Kong.

While often inferred in its newsprint advertising and colourful posters no Imperial Airways flying boats ever reached Hong Kong. Flying Boat services only commenced post-war in1946 by BOAC which in 1939 as a newly created state run airline had absorbed Imperial Airways.

 

I do not remember the first name of the Clemo who I met during my apprenticeship at the Hongkong & Whampoa Docks in Hung Hum, but it dosn't quite match any of the information available. The period in question is between Feb.1948 to Feb. 1952.

During this period he used to visit the shipyard to meet with their apprentices like me. I was 16 years old at the time. He appeared to be a teenager and looked very much like the photograph here. I don' think my contact was old enough to be in the HKVDF and imprisoned by the Japanese during the war years. He was very likeable and friendly and his surname is all that I remember well.

Thanks Moddsey for the information.

Hello everyone,

the young man in the picture was my Father, Frederick James Duncan Clemo. Son of Frederick Charles Clemo, Superintendent of China Light and Power and his mother was Elizabeth Whittaker Tollen Clemo who started the Betty Clemo Shop at the Pen. My Father was a young man at the time of joining the HKVDF and served time in POW camp in Innoshima. My mother still receives a war widows pension from the Hong Kong government to this day. Thank you for the Lovely comments about my Father. He died in 1999. He worked in Shipping most of his life, establish ing a group of companies here in the Philippines known as the Pandiman Group of Companies. He received an MBE from Her late Majesty the Queen in 1991 for his help and Assistance to the British Community here in the Philippines. 
 

Fiona Clemo Malca

 

Hi Fiona!

There has been a bit of discussion here in the past about the Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park, which it appears your grandfather had something to do with... and perhaps the development of the original houses in nearby Chung Shan Toi.

One of the regulars here, "OldTimer" has some recollections about the only original house still standing that remains unfinished... like Bob Tatz mentioned, the Clemo surname is one that seems to be remembered, so like me it might be that Peter (aka OldTimer) will also recognise the connection & who knows, perhaps there might be something you or mother might know/recall that might help Peter.

-kpl.

https://gwulo.com/Lai-Chi-Kok-Amusement-Park#17~22.34264~114.13698~Map_…

https://gwulo.com/node/59187#17~22.34392~114.13882~Map_by_GovHK-Markers…