IDJ has sent two more images of stone breaking, or “cutting” as the second image is titled, in Hong Kong. Related Indhhk articles: Stone breaking in early 20th Century Hong Kong Film of quarry stone breaking by hand 1953 – location The Index contains several articles about quarrying and the transportation of stone in Hong Kong.
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York Lo: Friends & U’Land (友聯磁磚潔具): Leading Distributor of Sanitary Ware Left: Ad of Friends & U’Land in the 1950s (HKBCA Yearbook); right: an old ad of Friends Company listing all the products it carried (U’land website) Earlier on the website, we covered three leading pioneers in the HK plumbing industry. Another important player in the industry was Friends & […]
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HF: The Hongkong Canton & Macao Steamship Company was a British merchant shipping and maritime trading company founded in 1865 in the Crown Colony of Hong Kong. The Hongkong, Canton & Macao Steamship Company was founded on 20th October 1865 in Hong Kong by a collection of people tied to the shipping industry in order to support the market for […]
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HF: IDJ has found the following information about Lok On Pai Desalting Plant posted on Facebook by, I think, Laurence Sidhu. This adds to several articles on the plant we already have posted, all of which are linked below. Hugh Farmer: I am not on Facebook but would be delighted to hear from Laurence if he could email me at […]
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York Lo: Red Capitalist: the life and ventures of K.C. Wong (王寬誠,1907-1986) Left: Portrait of K.C. Wong from the 1950s; Right: K.C. Wong meeting with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s When it comes to Hongkong’s “Red Capitalists”, Henry Fok (whose biographical entry I wrote for the Dictionary of HK Biography) is probably the first name that came […]
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HF: Our recently posted article, Wong Kwong-tin, manager of the Kai Tak Company, Managing Director of the Kai Tak Motor Bus Company, linked below, says “he is also pioneer Managing Director of the Kai Tak Motor Bus Company, which has been a most important factor in, and largely responsible for, the development of the Kowloon Peninsula.” Here are a few […]
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Tymon Mellor: This article has been extracted from The Kowloon Canton Railway (British Section) Part 4 – The Early Years (1910 to 1940). Major Railway Incidents Each year there were a number of incidents on the railway. Typically there would be a few derailments resulting in some damage, but no major injuries. There were also regular fatalities, normally three or four […]
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York Lo: Bakilly – the forgotten maker of perfumes, hair cream, toothpaste and other personal care products HF: York added four images to his original article in March 2019. These are indicated by an asterisk in the captions. Founded in the 1910s, Bakilly (百家利) was a major local personal care product brand in Hong Kong for over half a century […]
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HF: Sir Catchick Paul Chater was a prominent British businessman of Armenian descent in colonial Hong Kong, whose family roots were in Calcutta, India. Chater was born Khachik Pogose Astwachatoorean in Calcutta, British India, one of thirteen offspring of Armenian parents, Miriam and Chater Paul Chater. His father was a member of the Indian Civil Service. Chater was orphaned at […]
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York Lo has sent the following information about William MacGregor Smith. He was the Smith in Wahee, Smith & Co which in turn became The China Sugar Refinery. Smith is buried in HK cemetery – the tombstone states he was 76 (and was erected in 1907) and was from Scotland. On page 50 of Carl Smith’s book Chinese Christians there is […]
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