Missionary mother Mildred Dibden took ship back to Hong Kong from England late in 1951 and took a flat in Kowloon. The call of the need brought her back as it had first done in 1935, and to support herself she gave English lessons, while she sought some further direction.
Word must have spread that she was back in Hong Kong for she received a letter and a cheque for HK$500 ‘towards your new Babies’ Home.’ On the strength of that she rented two bungalows in Ping Shan in May 1952 and started taking in babies again. She was joined by Mrs Chan, the ex-matron of Fanling Babies’ Home and an ex-Fanling amah.
As before, there was no committee or church or society behind the work and there was no fixed income. Babies were brought in by the police, usually newly born or a few days old before being abandoned. As before, the aim of the Home was to give the children love and care as in a Christian family knowing the truths of God’s word, and to educate and train them to earn their living as useful citizens in life.
Very soon larger premises were needed, and in May 1953 with government help, the little family with 16 infants moved into the Old Police Station at Shatin at a nominal rent of $10 pcm. The Shatin Babies’ Home came into being.
With a few alterations it made an excellent home for a large family. On the ground floor was a dining room, sleeping rooms and a staff sitting room. Upstairs there was a sitting room, kitchen, bath, dispensary, sick room and Superintendent's bedroom.
The Toc H provided work gangs to decorate the interior and lay a concrete play-ground at the back, complete with swings and see-saws. The Toc H also moved a Talbot Shelter over from Ping Shan. The Home found that men of the Services were happy to spend their Saturday afternoons doing jobs in the Home and garden on a regular basis.
Help flooded in - gifts of money, clothing, furniture and food from women's guilds, Sunday Schools, Bible classes, sewing circles, Christian assemblies, welfare societies, and support from friends overseas as well as in Hong Kong who wanted to share in the work.
By 1956 there were 45 babies and toddlers (just three of them boys), and a staff of 5 young nurse girls, 5 amahs, a cook and a gardener. Four of the nurse girls were from the first intake of babies in the Fanling Home in 1936/37.
With the oldest toddlers being 4+, there were plans afoot for a kindergarten school, and a building fund in place to fund a school wing.
The school building was opened for the children in 1957, costing £40,000, and in 1959 a new wing was added to connect the old building to the school building. The cost of the addition was $80,000 but the funds were all in place for both projects. The school (2 classrooms with 18 pupils in each) was registered, which brought in a registered teacher, and a third classroom was planned for rising four-year-olds.
In 1960 there were 76 children (6 boys) in the Home. Some much-needed help arrived from Portsmouth, England in the form of Miss Valerie Conibear, who had heard of the Shatin story and wanted to dedicate her life to it. She had had very useful experience working in children’s homes in England, and her passage was kindly funded by friends from Alfred Holt and Co. In the Home she taught English classes, ran the little dispensary, took care of visitors, of whom there were many, and took over the writing of the regular news/prayer letters to supporters near and far.
Numbers of children soon topped 100, and more help was needed.
This came in the form of a second young woman from Rutland, England, named Miss Wendy Blackmur, who came from a career in accounts but also had an unaccountable love of the Chinese people and a feeling that she was meant to be in Hong Kong! Quite wonderfully her dream became reality, and she arrived in 1962.
In 1963 the annual newsletter showed a change of name to the Shatin Children’s Home. Changes were afoot in Hong Kong and its welfare system was advancing, the government was now prepared to make its own provision for abandoned babies in the colony and legislated accordingly. Miss Dibden was invited to consider an end to her work, as all new foundlings were to automatically become wards of the Social Welfare Department.
Changes had also been made in adoption law and as all the babies in government institutions had been found homes, and demand was still high, would Miss Dibden consider adoption for babies and children in her Home? After considerable heart searching the decision was made to release all children aged 10 and under, under the proviso that they should go to Christian homes in accordance with their upbringing. 25 children went to families in New Zealand and 24 to the United States.
This left Valerie and Wendy free to pursue a calling which was on their hearts to open a home specifically for special needs children, funded in the same way as the Shatin Home had been, by trust in God, and they returned to England for a year of appropriate training. Their Home of Loving Faithfulness opened in Hong Kong in 1965.
In the Shatin Home a lot of room was now available and so, working with the charity Christian Missions to many Lands, a Primary School was opened in 1964 for children of the Home and local children and another name change was made to High Rock House Children’s Home and School. Miss Frances Hollingsworth was the supervisor and she was assisted by four managers, Miss Dibden being one.
Mildred Dibden (60) was now thinking towards retirement, and her responsibility towards the 21 girls left in her charge who needed secondary schooling. For various reasons* the decision was made to seek permission to take them to England, the Home Office was approached, and amazingly, permission granted. With the help of long term friends in England, Charles Bird and Pat Best, and Bonnie Penny in Hong Kong, this was achieved and Mildred Dibden flew to London in August 1966 with her charges.
The Christian Mission to many Lands took over the administration of the Shatin premises, with Miss Frances Hollingsworth and Miss Ruth Whitehead running the High Rock Christian School.
*During the 1960s there was a lot of unrest and a strong feeling in Hong Kong that if there was war with Red China, Hong Kong would fall very quickly. Mildred Dibden may well have feared a repeat of 1941.
The Shatin Babies’ Home
Superintendent and Mother: Miss Mildred Dibden
Assistants: Valerie Conibear, Wendy Blackmur
Matrons: Mrs Chan, Mrs Yan
Hon. Treasurer, H.K: Miss Ruth Whitehead
Hon. Treasurer U.K: Miss Patricia Best
Hon. Medical Advisors: Dr. P K Jenkins, Dr. D V Rees
Hon. Auditors: Martin & Co. Chartered Accountants
Advisory Friends of the Family:
Mr Li Tsun Kai.
For history of the site see here.
Sources:
The Yip Family of Amah Rock by Jill Doggett
Secret Riches by Linda Ball
Let My Heart Be Broken by Richard Gehman
Shatin Babies’ Home newsletters 1953-66
Photos of this organisation:
