Sorry, we don't have any photos with this tag yet.
Seaman aboard the Admiral Y.S. Williams, an American freighter in dry dock at Hong Kong in December 1941. Captured after the fall of Hong Kong on December 25, 1941. Interned at Stanley, where he worked in the camp kitchen. Repatriated in August 1942.
Seaman aboard the Admiral Y.S. Williams, an American freighter in dry dock at Hong Kong in December 1941. Captured after the fall of Hong Kong on December 25, 1941. Interned at Stanley, where he worked in the camp kitchen. Repatriated in August 1942. From Omaha, NB.
Shipping executive for American Trading Company, the American firm that owned the freighter Admiral Y.S. Williams, which was captured in drydock along with its all-American crew in December 1941 in Hong Kong. A U.S.
The actual first name of Sonny Boy was not recorded by the Olson cousins, to whom he was most closely related. He was the son of David Hay Ritchie and of Ellen (Nellie) Ritchie, youngest daughter of the retired Swedish tavern owner, John Olson snr and his Chinese wife, Ching Ah Fung (later Ellen Olson). Sonny Boy was youngest grandchild of the elder Olsons. Sonny Boy appears in Hong Kong family photos that show John Olson snr with all his grandsons. The above photo shows him as a baby.
I have deleted my original post about Nellie Olson's first husband, pictured here, as the family was given a false name for him. Nellie's husband was in fact David Hay Ritchie. They married in Manila where Nellie was working in 1914. I will add more in due course.
Heinrich Kirchmann, who anglicised his name to Henry in Hong Kong, was the much younger brother of Louis Kirchmann. He was license holder of the Rising Sun at the same time as Louis was license holder of The Land we Live In. He is named in Jarrett's "Old Hong Kong" in the list of license holders of Hotels and Taverns. He died in California aged 88, leaving a widow. Mrs. Johanne M.H. Kirchmann, three daughters and a son, also called Henry. (Gwulo contributor, Susann, who has been researching the Petersen and Kirchmann families, is the source of this information.)
Nellie was the youngest daughter of John Olson and the fifth of his six children. She was step-sister of my grandmother, Hannah Warren. Her birth certificate gives her mother as Cheng A-Fung, who would later take Ellen as her Christian name, making two Ellens in the family. Nellie was born at 1 Ladder Street Terrace. The Ladies Directory gives her as living with her mother in Caine Road until at least 1907 after the birth of her nephew, Arthur, when her address is given at Charles and Hannah Warren's home at 2 Observatory Villas.
Ethel Groce was born in 1909 in Troy, Missouri, USA, and completed her schooling there.