I am engaged in editing the logbook of HMS Tarantula. An intriguing entry for the 6th July 1923 reads,"At Wuchow. 11.30am: Baptism Service held on board. Dorothy Haslett Hunter christened by the Rt Reverend the Bishop of Victoria." A christening aboard a ship of the Royal Navy is highly unusual, so I wonder who was Miss Hunter and why the Bishop travelled from HK to christen her?
Wuchow is of course now known as Wuzhou. The Anglican Bishop of Victoria at that time was Charles Ridley Duppuy. A google search reveals that Dorothy enlisted in the Australian Army as a Sapper in 1942, d.o.b 10th December 1922 in HK and that her next of kin was given as Edward Hunter.
Is there an historian who can shed any further light on this? Were her parents missionaries perhaps?
Thanks!
Re: Baptism
In 1923, there was unrest in Wuchow. The baptism is covered in the local papers. See here
Thank you very much! The
Thank you very much! The "genial" Cdr Crocker, the Senior Naval Officer for the West River, had just returned from a meeting in Nanning with the Chinese Civil and Military Governors of the region, neatly demonstrating the range of skills required for a gunboat Captain on the China Station. I wonder what became of Miss Hunter, she could of course still be alive, aged 95.
Dorothy Haslett Hunter, is
Dorothy Haslett Hunter, is the daughter of, Edward Haslett Hunter & Eileen Dorothy Cruickshank
The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864-1933), Saturday 13 February 1915, page 15
Mr. E H Hunter (son of Mr. S H Hunter, of Ipswich) will return to the East early in March Mr. Hunter, who holds a position in the China Government service, has been on two years' furlough, during which he had toured Japan, Canada, and the United States, and' Is now spending the remainder of his leave with his parents in Ipswich He is one of the first Australians to enter the higher branches of the Chinese Government service, and received his original appointment in 1905, through the late Sir Robert Hart