New on Gwulo: 2024, week 07

Submitted by David on Sun, 02/18/2024 - 12:00

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

Overseas readers: The new Gwulo book is now available to order from Amazon (affiliate link).
Reports of:
Dates for your diary:
Next month I'll be giving a couple of talks, and it will be great to see you if you can attend. The first talk is about Hong Kong's people, based on my latest book but also incorporating photos and stories from the previous four volumes. The second talk is about Hong Kong's military history, using photos in my collection and from the Gwulo website to introduce the subject. I'll come back with more details and how to book in a future newsletter, but wanted to give you the dates first.
- 14 March, Thursday evening. 'People' talk at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre on Kennedy Rd, hosted by the RAS. If you can't make a weekday event, there's a second chance to see it...
- 16 March, Saturday afternoon. 'People' talk at Vibe in Mui Wo on Lantau. Then towards the end of the month is the second talk...
- 26 March, Tuesday evening. 'Military History' talk at the United Services Recreation Club (USRC) in Kowloon, hosted by the OMRS.
Readers ask:
- Journalist Dick Cloake took his trusty typewriter into Stanley Camp and it survived the long internment. Now his daughter would like to ask: where would be a good home for that typewriter in the long term?
- Who lived in the shop house at 75 Un Chau Street?
- Was Col LA Newnham in charge of HK's Military Intelligence in 1940?
- Which year was the Katherine Building on Nathan Road built?
- What are the buildings in these 1950s photos, possibly taken around Ping Shan in the New Territories
- Which part of Lantau Island does this photo show?
  
  view from Lantau Peak, by bobkeates
- What is the story shown in the carvings on the camphorwood chest?
  
  whole chest lid, by jill
- Looking for information about:
Gwulo's Jurors List project needs your help to type up a page and get us closer to putting all of the Jurors Lists online.

Hong Kong history galore!

UK readers, if you have a family member who was in Hong Kong in WW2, check the newly catalogued collection of wartime record cards at the National Archives to see if they have a card for your relative. Read the full story in their article: Life and death in Hong Kong during the Second World War. Thanks to David Wallingford for letting me know about this.
Still in the UK, Bristol University's Hong Kong History Centre is producing a series of videos, where they interview different people who are exploring Hong Kong's history. The first two are now online:
- Video #1: Dr Vivian Kong - this starts with an introduction to the series from Professor Ray Yep, who is the interviewer in these videos. Ray introduces Vivian, and we hear about her journey from Tuen Mun to Bristol, then get in to the meat of her research, looking at Hong Kong in the early 20th century, why local people came to value 'Britishness', and some of the barriers put in place by the British authorities.
- Video #2 Dr. Kwong Chi Man - here we meet our local champion of Hong Kong's military history. Chi Man talks about how he got interested in the topic, then about his recent book looking at Hong Kongers in the British armed forces - which opens the door to a social history of these people's experiences, and a new view of how people in apparently the same situation could have such different interactions with the British. The video ends with a brief tour of Chi Man's excellent website, The Battle of Hong Kong 1941: A Spatial History Project, which uses digital maps to present the battle in new ways.
Back in Hong Kong, on Friday evening I was happy to see Patricia O'Sullivan who had just arrived from the airport. During this visit Patricia is giving a series of four talks - details on her website. I've already signed up for her free talk on 2 March at the Maritime Museum, Fire-fighting on Land and Sea.
I'm sure Patricia will have her books for sale at the talks, so it's a good chance to highlight Zolima's recent review of her second book: Hong Kong reads: Women, Crime and a Window Into Hong kong History.
Zolima regularly publish articles about Hong Kong's history, and a recent one from Annemarie Evans about collectors caught my eye. Many collectors become experts on the history of the items they collect, and we're lucky to have had several collectors share their knowledge here on Gwulo. In her article, Hong Kong Collectors: It Started With A (VW) Bug, Annemarie meets Andrew Ng to learn about his collection of anything and everything related to Hong Kong's motoring history.
Finally, on Annemarie's weekly Hong Kong Heritage radio show, I enjoyed the recent episode where she met Vaudine England to hear about why archiving information - whether at the family or business level - is so important to preserving history.

People

William BARKER [c.1849-1924], electrical contractor, and the man behind 'Barker Island' at Chai Wan.
Winifred BARKER [c.1874-1928], daughter of William above, lived in Hong Kong for 25 years
Harry GOLDMAN [c.1875-1945], Chief Engineer, POW. Confirmed he died and was buried at the British Military Hospital on Bowen Road
Niels Orskov CHRISTENSEN [????-1942], Danish, a merchant in H0ng Kong, gunner with the HKVDC, POW
Hugh Latimer CLEAVE [1910-2010], Surgeon-Commander in the Royal Navy, and head of the Hong Kong Royal Naval Hospital during WW2
Francis Woodley KENDALL (aka Mike) [1907-1973], head of Z force in WW2
K.B. Lee (李劍斌) [1920-1965], member of a wealthy local family, amateur pilot
Ame Mathew / Matthew MADAR [1894-1968] and son Cyril Manley MADAR [????-2011]
George Daniel MATCHAM [1893-1938], worked at the Hong Kong stables, and was a jockey in races at Happy Valley

mr matcham on mosaic tile, by jill
Elizabeth STARCHENKO [????-1960], Russian, remained uninterned during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong
William John WHITE [1903-1943], light house keeper, executed by the Japanese for his resistance activities
James Sinclair WHITE [c.1875-1938], marine engineer, father of William shown above
Rosemary WOOD [c.1931- ], spent the occupation years with her younger sister Sylvia and their step-mother in the French Convent, then Rosary Hill
Interned in Stanley Camp
- George Thomas PADGETT [1901-????], electrical engineer
- Herbert Richmond WELLS [1863-1950], missionary, teacher, the first warden of Morrison Hall, OBE, Chinese linguist, and more! Interned in Stanley Camp.