De Jongh family residence, 2 Chatham Road, Hong Kong; Kowloon Signal Hill, 1930

Tue, 06/18/2019 - 13:17

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.
 
Charles' colleague Frans de Jongh started much earlier at Holland-China Trading Company, in 1919, twenty years before Charles did. In 1930 he worked for the HCHC Hong Kong office. With his wife he lived at 2 Chatham Road, where their daughter Anneke was born, in the same year.

Flickr member Peter Heindl commented: "This is signal hill at Kowloon. The tower in the background is the signal tower. 1927 the upper part with the round windows was added. The thing on top is the „time ball“ which signaled noontime for the ships and replaced the noontime canon."

Courtesy De Jongh family archives (c) Anneke Knüppe-de Jongh <a href="https://hierinhetoostenalleswel.nl/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">hierinhetoostenalleswel.nl/</a>
 

Source: This image came from Flickr, see https://flickr.com/photo.gne?id=48084186392

Date picture taken
1930s

Comments

The buildings to the right of Signal Hill comprised the three houses (two semi-detached and one single house) of Gomes Villas on 1-3 Chatham Road. The De Jongh family occupied the semi-detached home on the right side of the building nearest to Signal Hill.

https://hierinhetoostenalleswel.nl/family-christmas-in-china-1929-1946/

Dear reader,

Mieke Melief, author about the De Jongh family history, placed a blog about spending Christmas in China, 1929-46. There are some interesting Hong Kong photos:

Peninsula Hotel, Christmas 1929

Picknick at Tai Mo Shan

The New Territories seen from Tai Mo Shan

When Frans and Willy de Jongh arrived in Hong Kong, in 1929, housing was hard to find and they stayed in the Peninsula Hotel. In 1930 they moved to 2 Chatham Road, Kowloon, Gomes Villas.

Best wishes,

Pieter