AMO Special Lectures tomorrow: Defence of the Victoria Harbour (1841-1941)

Folks,

I did not do my homework before going there.  The talk was actually hosted by Mr Tim Ko, who shared tens of photographs and paintings with fellow participants.  It was presented in Cantonese.   Some of the photos or paintings had also been posted here before.  

During the talk I learnt something:

1.   One volunteer of some conservatory group reported that the path to Pottinger battery and the observation post near the coast had been cleared of weeds and woods.  They are now trying to locate the exact retreat route of British defenders from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island during the Japanese invasion.

2.   Mr Ko advised there are two more relics a little bit to the east of the torpedo launcher cave at the Museum of Coastal Defense.  However he said it had been much over grown and very difficult to go there these day.  He stressed he didn't know if it is allowed to go there anymore.

3.   In Lung Fu Shan country park, there is a pavilion at one of the hill tops overlooking Western District.  Mr Ko mentioned there used to be another small observation point of an earlier age made of stone at another hill further down the slope.  It is also much over grown and near impossible to trash through.  He showed a photo of its entrance, and the stone wall inside it.

4.   Mr Ko also spent over half an hour talking about the Central & Admiralty, area;

5.   Mr Ko talked about the evolution of batteries, which reflected the artilary technology of the time.  From front loading guns, to modern guns, rifle lines in the barrow, range, fire power, tons of stuffs.

That's what my cluttered mind could recall at the moment

Best Regards,

T

Hi there,

Mr Ko is currently a board mamber of the Antiquities Advisory Board 2011-2012 (1 January 2011 - 31 December 2012) 

http://www.amo.gov.hk/en/antiquities_membership.php

Mr Ko did mention Stonecutter's Island, but only very briefly saying many of the batteries sites still exist, however it would be very difficult to go there these days.  The batteries mentioned in the talk were basically Army Batteries.  He mentioned those 9 inchers around the harbour could easily punch through the armours of war ships in the early 1900's as modern dreadnaughts did not exist then.  

Mr Ko also mentioned once the Army ran a demonstration of such artilary for some sort of a committee from the UK at the Pinewood Battery, shooting at a target aloat somewhere in the western side of the harbour and the hit rate was over 70%.  It was considered very impressive with the technology of the time.

Best Regards,

T