Tennis came up as a subject lately so when I came across this picture which shows the aftermath of tennis at The Towers, 13 Broadwood Road in about 1920 thought I would post it. In right hand corner you can just see racket and perhaps white tennis pumps.
No doubt a drink restored the energy. The man sitting in the middle is my great uncle Charles Olson who seems to be holding a bottle of Johnnie Walker in his hand. The drinks table looks reasonably stocked.
Think the picture taken by his wife Ethel as she was usually in the picture! Standing behind the seated group - none of whom I can identify apart from Charles is Charles Warren and his wife, my great aunt Hannah. This picture comes from my aunt's collection - like so many - but I have seen another with more rackets strewn on the ground and no sign of the drink's table but obviously taken at the same time possibly by Hannah who is not in it.
The other interesting point is that it shows a small Chinese girl and the lady at the far end may also be Chinese. This child may have lived at The Towers as I have another picture of her playing there.
Is this an example of Eurasian families sharing their homes I wonder?
Comments
20 Broadwood Road
The address of The Towers was actually 20 Broadwood Road.
You can see one of the towers at the left hand edge of the photo.
Date correction
The date of this photo should be late October or early November 1917, when my uncle, Leslie Warren, had just arrived in Hong Kong, having left his school in England aged 18. In this photo he is sitting second from left. Leslie spent nine months in Hong Kong learning the business of C.E. Warren & Co. before returning to England around July 1918 and joining the Royal Air Force cadets. He didn't then return to Hong Kong until after his father's death in 1923. In my opinion, the older man sitting next to Leslie with the whisky bottle actually looks older, fatter and balder than Charles Olson seems to be in photos of six years later. I'm inclined to think that this man may be the husband of the lady on his left and that all the non-Warrens have been invited round for a drink. Nobody is dressed for tennis, let alone the wearer of the empty white high heels. The photographer cannot be Ethel Olson at this date as Charles and Ethel did not marry until 1922, which is when Ethel first arrived in Hong Kong.