Everything tagged: General

Ever wondered what it was like to be on the sick list in Hong Kong 175 or even 150 years ago? You might think twice about going to hospital when the 'nurses' were low-paid servants with no training other than that the doctor managed to give them and the 'matron' was actually the Wardmaster - likely to be a discharged sailor who found it difficult to remain sober for two hours together. To say nothing of the hospital itself which suffered from the diseases of wet rot, dry rot, decay, defective construction and white ants. Successive Colonial Surgeons were near despair.

A copy of the original document is available online at HKGRO.

You can click on any of the bold column headings below (eg Occupation) to sort on that column. Click it again to reverse the sort order.

I find these two photos at Gwulo website which show the same location from the same vantage point, but "https://gwulo.com/media/29728" is described as "Glenealy", while "https://gwulo.com/media/20843" is described as "Public Garden" (currently Zoological and Botanical Gardens). Would anyone know which description is correct? Thank you.

Rubin Verebes of the BEAT hong kong interviewed me about all things Gwulo. The resulting article was published in June: Meet David Bellis, Founder of Gwulo, Hong Kong's Largest Online Historical Archive.

I am intrigued as to what type of plane Ken Sly was piloting when this photograph was taken.  Judging by the prop. and engine at top right it must have been a small twin-engine propeller type.  Ken was licenced to fly a wide range of planes both prop. and jet, and I know that while in Hong Kong he flew various R.A.F. planes  to keep up his flying hours.  Austers, Vampires/Venoms, a Hunter and possibly a Meteor and Sunderland flying boat, but  I am not aware of any twin-engine prop planes.  Any thoughts?

A copy of the original document is available online at HKGRO.

You can click on any of the bold column headings below (eg Occupation) to sort on that column. Click it again to reverse the sort order.

My great grandfather sailed on the Blue Funnel Lines' S.S. Orestes in early 1900.  He was the chief steward on this freighter when they departed Liverpool on Jan. 9, 1900.

His trip took him to Port Said, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nagasaki, Moji, Kobe, Yokohama, then back to Kobe, Shanghai, Amoy, and Hong Kong.

He died while in Hong Kong Habour on March 25, 1900.

I'm interested in finding out if anybody knows if there are Marine Museums in any of the above Ports of Call and if there are, if there is any contact information for reaching out to them.  

We have visited the Fan Lau Fort a few times and we are searching for more information, on how this fort initially looked like. We were searching with our metal detector for further clues. According to a journal there was already a fort situated on the site of this one. Built in the 15th. century, thats 200 years earlier. Could anyone please recommend us with further cluers and information where to search further. (Books, Maps etc). Forts were also built in Tung Chung, Tuen Mun, Mui Wo and many more on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Perhaps they had a way of communicating with each other.

Who remembers:

"Suey Hing"

"Sincere"- one of the founders was Mr. Jan Con-Sang, once a documented Chinese Laborer in 1890s U.S.A.

"Wing On"

???

In December 2022, I posted a photo of a bridge I saw at Stanley, Falkland Islands.