1 Kwok Acheong + P&O connection

Newsletter 04

Hugh Farmer: Kwok Acheong (b? Canton d.1880 Hong Kong) became one of the richest men in Hong Kong during the 19th century as a compradore, shipowner, merchant and landowner. There is considerable information about his life and business interests. One of the latter was taking over the ‘shipwright and engineering department’ from the P&O Steamship Company in 1854. I can find nothing about this particular subject: where was the Dept, what particularly did it do and what happened to it post Kwok Acheong? Can anyone provide some answers? Also when was he born?

Newsletter 08

P&O Steamship Company, Shipwright and Engineering Department, Hong Kong 1854
A request was made asking for more information about Kwok Acheong (b? Canton d1880 Hong Kong) who had considerable business interests in Hong Kong. In particular, his involvement in early Hong Kong shipbuilding, and particularly taking over the ‘shipwright and engineering department’ from the P&O Steamship Company in 1854.

Susie Cox, Curator of the P&O Heritage Collection, London, has responded. She can find no
mention of the sale of this department in the P&O Annual Report for 1854 or mention of Kwok Acheong in F.R. Kendall’s letters (Kendall was an employee of P&O from 1856-1906 and worked in Hong Kong during the early part of his career). Ms Cox suggests the most likely source of any information would be either Board Minutes for the period and/or agency reports or unpublished research notes compiled by Freda Harcourt in the process of writing “Flagships of Imperialism”.