My Mum, Shirley Gillard, born in 1933, came out to HK in 1956 as a teacher with the Army School at Murray barracks.
My Mum, born in Honiton in Devon, must have felt HK was about as far away from Devonshire life as possible. In those days, contact to home was by letters, and Mum kept a diary of her first impressions of HK. Mum was sporting and active and would have been keen to explore HK. In the 1950's whilst bustling and busy in the city areas, the New Territories and the beaches of the southside etc. must have seemed like oases of tranquility. This air of peace is brought out in her descriptions of the scenes etc.
Remember these words are written by a 23 year old lady in her first summer in HK. HK at the time was very different, a third of the population, lots of people who have escaped from China trying to make a living, working all hours and living in basic conditions.
Sample pages
'Stanley' bus from depot past Kowloon ferry 60 cents.
The buses are like English ones only the driver sits at the front and is not cut off.
The Repulse Bay bus goes through Wanchai: a typical Chinese quarter. It's very crowded with many more coolie types dressed in black than you see in the central part. Children sit outside doors: they are all ages and all look alike.
The shops on the whole are clean: especially the cake shops where you can buy lurid looking things that…
This is reached by taking the ferry across to the island of Lantaow.
The ferry is similar to the star ferry service. It costs 60 cents. There are two stops before Silvermine Bay.
The ferry goes along parallel to the waterfront of Hong Kong Island past Kennedy Town. Here the buildings become progressively poorer. There are no windows to the rooms which you can see are very overcrowded.
Next, you can see the Observatory for the R.A.F. at Mount Davis. This is a high sharp…
This was held on reclaimed ground in Kowloon. Ground is reclaimed from the sea, simply by pushing in scrap earth until the pile is high enough to rise above the water.
The Circus was held in a tent as at home. The seats were merely wooden benches. However for an extra 10c. you could have a bamboo mat.
Most of the audience were Chinese, who had brought their children along.
The acts in the circus were the usual ones but no safety net was used in the trapeze work. Here,…