Holland-China Trading Company: portrait Hong Kong Textile Department Staff, 1918

Charles Gesner van der Voort had started his career in Rotterdam, at Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC). In 1938, he went to Shanghai for the firm. The Japanese interned him, and most other Dutch nationals, from 1943-45. In camp, he met his wife Nancy and they married after the war. After a leave in The Netherlands, they returned to the Orient, where Charles continued to work for HCHC in Hong Kong.

Twenty years before Charles started, in 1918, a photo album was made of the Hong Kong office and office staff. This portrait shows the staff of the HK office textile department. From left to right: a compradore (name unknown), F. Lafleur, two employees (name unknown). Suggestions for the missing names are welcome!

Gwulo.com shows F. Lafleur's full name, in a list of jurors: Franciscus Hubertus Joseph Alphonsus Lafleur. He was in Hong Kong for a long period. He appears in the first list of jurors in 1915 and the last reference is the list of 1941.
<a href="https://gwulo.com/jurors-list-1930" rel="noreferrer nofollow">gwulo.com/jurors-list-1930</a>
F. Lafleur's daughter was interned by the Japanese in Stanley Camp; Mary Lafleur, born 10 June 1931. I assume the whole family was interned there.
<a href="https://gwulo.com/node/41084" rel="noreferrer nofollow">gwulo.com/node/41084</a>
There is a Franciscus Hubertus Joseph Alfonsus Lafleur, born 10 March 1890 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, who is most likely the person in this photo. The age would about match. <a href="https://www.archieven.nl/nl/zoeken?mistart=20&mivast=0&mizig=310&miadt=…" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.archieven.nl/nl/zoeken?mistart=20&mivast=0&mi...</a&gt;
A Lafleur relative in The Netherlands informed me that his wife was named Lilly, "daughter of a mandarin" and that they possibly had two adopted children.
Greg Leck's book Captives of Empire showed two children of Franciscus and Lilly Lafleur in Stanley Camp, Hong Kong:
daughter Ah Kan and son Ah Tong.

Textile was the main trade product at the start of the company, in 1903. By the 1920s, Japanese textile had taken a major market position in China and had outdone the English and Dutch competition.

1256   N.V. Internationale Crediet- en Handelsvereniging Rotterdam/C.V. en N.V. Wm H. Muller & Co. (Internatio-Muller N.V.) 1402 Foto album van kantoren in China.

courtesy Stadsarchief Rotterdam, <a href="http://www.stadsarchief.rotterdam.nl" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.stadsarchief.rotterdam.nl</a&gt;

Source: This image came from Flickr, see https://flickr.com/photo.gne?id=48028326496