This photo is labelled "Mrs Whiteley and her chow". As previously posted, the Whiteleys were near neighbours to my uncle, Leslie Warren and his family who lived at 19 Broadwood Road from 1923-1938. This chow may be a relative of my grandfather's chow, Bess, commemorated in various family photos.
Jill
Date picture taken
1920s
Gallery
Shows person / people
Shows place(s)
Comments
Maybe no. 17 Broadwood Road - or not
I wanted to edit the title and tag of this photo from our family album, but it seems to have been re-posted by David and I can't. I had cropped the ink legend at the top of the frame that reads: "Mrs. Whitely, no. 17 Broadwood Rd., Hong Kong. My cousin Diana Warren added a note adjacent to the photo that reads: My Godmother Mrs. Whitely, 16 Broadwood Rd., Hong Kong.
All the legends to the photographs inherited by Diana were added in old age and the spellings of names relied on her memory of hearing them spoken as a child. In this case the name of her godmother should be spelt "Whiteley".
I don't now know if the house is actually no. 16 or no. 17 and can't remember how I reached my decision at the time. Perhaps David found the correct information from the Jurors List. More research needed!
Whiteley on Broadwood Road
In the 1924 Jurors List, William Henry Whiteley resided at 17 Broadwood Road. He was at the time a clerk with Asiatic Petroleum Co. (APC).
In subsequent years, he gave his residence as an Assistant as being "on premises". Not sure if this meant his work premises or quarters at APC or whether or not he still maintained a residence at 17 Broadwood Road.
He does not appear in the 1933 and 1934 Jurors List.
In 1935 till 1941, he was a Director or Manager at Der A. Wing Co. Ltd and gave his address as 16 Broadwood Road.
I assume for now 16 and 17 Broadwood Road were two separate addresses. Unless there was a renumbering exercise for the addresses on Broadwood Road which made No. 17 change to No. 16 in later years ?
Upsized on changing companies?
With my Sherlock Holmes hat on, I'm going to risk assuming that the house in this photo was actually of 17 Broadwood Road, as in the legend written in the top frame in Cicely Warren's hand (cropped by me). 17 Broadwood Road was the cheaper of the two houses according to the Rate Book valuation and it would be logical for William Whiteley, on moving to a managerial post in a different company, to have moved to the more expensive, perhaps bigger house that had originally been the home of C.S. Gubbay. No. 17 may have been specifically for Asiatic Petroleum staff. Diana, born in December 1926, would have remembered the Whiteleys living at no. 16 and so probably felt that she had the authority to correct the legend on the photograph.
Broadwood Road Residences of William Whiteley
In 1928, William Whiteley still maintained his residence at 17 Broadwood Road despite giving his main place of residence as "on premises" at APC in the Jurors List of the same year. A theft at his Broadwood Road residence can be viewed in the Hong Kong Telegraph on 3 November 1928 at: https://archive.org/details/NPTG19281103/page/n1/mode/2up?q=whiteley%2C+broadwood%2C
In another report of the theft at https://archive.org/details/NPTG19281117/page/n13/mode/2up?q=broadwood, Mrs. Whiteley was also referred to as "Nellie" Whiteley.
In 1938, William Whiteley gave his residence as 16 Broadwood Road. He had signed a lease for his "new" premises with his landlord, Aaron Sassoon Gubbay in September 1933. A court case between tenant and landlord appeared in the Hong Kong Daily Press on 4 May 1939 at: https://archive.org/details/NPDP19390504/page/n5/mode/2up?q=whiteley