Impressions of an upbringing in Hong Kong 1910-1933.
My grandmother was a meticulous diary keeper, though I'm not sure when all this was compiled. Apart from taking out the first ten or so pages that are devoted to early childhood in Wei Hai We, where her and her sister were born, I have not editted it. The pictures are all from her photo albums. Some of them are postcards from the time.
Sample pages
LIU KUNG TAO
Audrey and I were born on the island of Liu Kung Tao (Duke Liu's
Island) off the coast of Shantung in North China. Shantung means
"East of the Mountains". The Island was part of the territory of
Wei Hai Wei which had been leased to Great Britain in 1898 to be a
summer base for the Royal Navy's China Fleet. The leased territory on
the Chinese mainland consisted of the …
In September 1915 we left Wei Hai Wei for Hong Kong, our father
having been appointed to the Victualling Store Office in Kowloon.
I was almost five years old and Audrey was three.
We went to live at Eden Court, a boarding house in Kowloon run by
Mrs. Railton. It was a large house with a garden and tennis court,
and a bamboo grove. We were told not to go into it, because
of the bamboo…
HONG KONG
I think it was in the Autumn of 1917 that Mamma joined the
staff of Shewan, Tomes and Co., the mercantile firm in Chater Road, as an accountant. We left Kowloon, and Mamma went to
live at the Helena May Institute, ladies' club in Garden Road,
while Audrey and I became boarders at the Italian Convent in
Caine Road *.
My only memories of this school are unhappy ones. …