New on Gwulo: 2024, week 43

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:
 

General

• UK readers - I'll be giving a free talk in Wales on 6 Nov. Details here in English and Welsh. It'll be great to see you if you can join us.

• HK Readers - Annelise is organising a Gwulo lunchtime meetup at the American Club in Central on 26 Nov, all welcome.

• Here are clearer, scanned copies of a couple of photos we looked at in my recent videos. (If you'd like to take a closer look at any of these photos, first click the photo to visit its page, then click the 'Zoom' tab to see a copy you can zoom in to and / or display full screen.)

  • 

  • 

• Selwyn-Clarke's report on health and medicine in Hong Kong in WW2

• Governors of Hong Kong

• The three American Landing Ships, Tank, that ferried the East River Column Guerillas to northern China in 1946

• Readers are looking for any information about:

  • Any photos or additional information about the first Shatin Police Station, which opened in 1899 in the old Customs Station

  • Female expatriates who came on their own terms to Hong Kong to work in the early 20th century, and particularly post WWII.

  • Was there a Tram drivers dormitory (housing block) at North Point on the King's Road?

  • Where in Pokfulam was Deacon's Bungalow in the 1900s?
     
  • Who were the Malay Muslims in Hong Kong in the early / mid 20th century?
     
  • Where were the 19 civilian first aid posts in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island located in December 1941?
     
  • Does anyone recognise the other students in this 1950s photograph - Rosemary Mitchell is far left. 

    • 

  • Where in the New Territories were these photos taken?

    • 

    • 

    • 

---

 

Organisations & People

• Merrill Steele ADY [1895-1982]
   
• Edward BOWDLER [1831-1907]
   
• Alice Nora DILLON [1906-????]
   
• Audrey Gladys DONNITHORNE [1922-2020]
   
• Frank Henry William HAYNES [c.1884-1943]
   
• Chor-chi LI [c.1888-1940]
   
• George William Forbes PLAYFAIR [1852-1918]
   
• Leopoldina Francisca SAGE (née GONçALVES) [1828-1923]
   
• Interned in Stanley Camp:
  • Don ADY [1932-2023]
    • I'm very sorry to learn that Don passed away last year. I had the pleasure of meeting him when he attended the Stanley Camp Reunion organised by Geoff Emerson, and we all visited Cheung Chau together with his wife Barbara, revisiting the area he'd lived in as a child. He shared several memories of old Hong Kong with us over the years, including his memories of the fighting, internment and repatriation he experienced in 1941 and 42 as a young boy in Hong Kong.
  • Madeline HAYNES [1899-????]
     

---

 

The Joys of the Public Records Office

Regular contributor Annelise describes the happiness of hunting down a newly discovered old building at the PRO...

Oh boy! 

A photo got posted on Gwulo showing a building on the Peak that I don't ever remember seeing before. And when you are talking about The Peak before 1938, that's pretty impressive. After all, I'm the gal who penned the page … “First Houses on the Peak”.  

But what brought a smile to my face, and a spring in my step was that now, once again, it was time for a visit to … drumroll please … the “Public Records Office” in Kwun Tong.  

Where ?  That's what I thought the first time I had to hunt it down.

 

Over the next few months, I will document things like, the joy of a full American breakfast at McDonald's (at the housing estate next-door to the PRO) … while you wait for the documents you requested to be brought from some magical place inside the PRO building to the “searchers room”.

As well as a question I've never properly answered, “the Kwun Tong Public Swimming Pool is right across the street. Why don't I ever bring my swimsuit?”

So it all began with this photo of a postcard… and ended with a beautiful 1893 lease diagram from the PRO … from a surrendered Crown Lease (counterpart) of Rural Building Lot 80.

(doesn't it just give you goosebumps to hear all these nerdy history phrases)

… to be continued …

 

---

 

Places & Streets

• Hong Kong Island
  • Causeway to Kellett Island [1952-c.1968]
     
  • The Eyre Diocesan Refuge [1898-1936]
     
  • Honiton Road and Westbourne Villas in the sixties
     
  • St. Mary's Church [1937- ]
     
  • 2 Queen's Road West [????-????]
     
  • c. 1929 re-alignment of the entrance road to the Repulse Bay Hotel
     
  • Siemssen's & Co - Pok Fu Lam bungalow [????- ]
     
  • Ticia Mansion [c.1925-c.1970]
     
  • Manmade Cave at The Twins [????- ]
     
  • Victoria Peak Apartments [1954-????]
     
• Kowloon
  • Lai Chi Kok Prison 1st Gen [1920-c.1974]
     
  • Lai Chi Kok Prison 2nd Gen [1977- ]
     
• New Territories & Outlying Islands
  • Tai O, #155 Tai Ping Street [????- ]
     

---

 

Photos
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Click to see all recently added photos.