Kennedy-Skipton buys land for a bungalow

Tue, 09/23/2014 - 00:45

Cutting from SCMP 24 April 1934

Date picture taken
24 Apr 1934
Shows place(s)

Comments

I can confirm that all three refer to the same location.

See:

If the Lot still exists today, try the Government's Geoinfo Map. At the bottom of the Search tab, in the Advanced Search section, click Lot to search by lot number.

This and other tips about building information at: http://gwulo.com/old-hong-kong-buildings

Regards, David

If kennedy Skipton owned his residence on Mt. cameron, it paints a very different picture to him just living in HK Government supplied accomodation.

It would be interesting to discover when he sold the residence. I would suspect early Post WW 2, with the proceeds being used to fund Helen and the daughters move to and setting up home in the UK.

Michael

In 1934 Kennedy-Skiptons' salary was £1,100 p.a. (1935 salary was £1,150 p.a. and 1936 £1,200).

In none of these years is there any sum entered in the category 'House or Quarters, and Allowances for Rent, Entertainment, Personal or for any other purpose'. As far as I can make out, this is generally true of those listed as 'Cadets', although not of those listed as 'Colonial Secretary's Department or Legislature' or 'Secretariat for Chinese Affairs'.

According to a convertor I consulted the value of his 1934 salary in the UK in 2012 would have been £66, 100. From what I've read, prices in Hong Kong in the 1930s were lower than in the UK so he probably had little trouble housing himself! John Fraser, the wartime Defence Secretary, another Cadet whose career has some similarities to Kennedy-Skipton's but starting two years earlier, bought Taipo Lookout in 1933, now a Grade 11 Listed Building.

PS

By 1939, the last year I can find a 'Civil Establishment of Hong Kong' in the  HKGRO Kennedy-Skipton's salary was £1350.