The Hume Pipe (Far East) Ltd – Jock Inglis -The Peninsula Hotel and Clark Gable!
The photo of Jock Inglis has been added, thanks to Amelia Allsop and The HK Heritage Project.
Thanks to IDJ for this newspaper report.
The Argus, Melbourne, Australia
11 July 1935
Hugh Farmer: Extracted from Past & Present, the Newsletter of the Hong Kong Heritage Project (2014 No.2) – John ‘Jock’ Inglis arrived in Hong Kong in 1938 as General Manager for the Hume Pipe Co., an Australian company, to build the pipeline from Shing Mun Reservoir across to HK island.”
Jock Inglis c1938 Courtesy: Amelia Allsop,www.hongkongheritage.org
Jock sounds something of a character and it’s worth reading about his long term residency at the Peninsula Hotel in the Past and Present link below. Including, ” One of Jock’s many friends there was Clark Gable…who was on location for “Soldier Of Fortune”. Legend has it that reunion drinks at Jock’s table became so frequent that the film’s producer banned Gable from this magic table until his work was done.”
Courtesy: www.mtholyoke.edu
Leaving dull Hollywood to return to the glamour of HK water supplies, construction of The Shing Mun Reservoir started in 1933 and was completed in 1937 when it was initially known as The Jubilee Reservoir.
Philip Cracknell writes about the company on 10 Dec 1941. The following reports come from the War Diary of HMS Cicala.
see: The Hong Kong Heritage Project – Home Page
This article was first posted on 8th March 2015.
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