HF: Shewan, Tomes & Co. was one of the leading trading companies in Hong Kong and China during the late 19th and early 20th century. When Russell & Co., then one of the largest mercantile firms in the Far East, went out of business in 1891, former employees Scotsman Robert Shewan and Englishman Charles Alexander Tomes took over the remains of the operation and changed […]
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HF: The China Daily, HK Edition, of 1st September 2015 contained the first of a planned series of articles about what is seen as an “explosion of interest of material related to the city’s industrial past”. The article by Chitralekha Basu starts with mention of The Industrial History of Hong Kong website, “floated by a long-time HK-resident English gentleman”. Probably […]
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Joe MacDonald was Ian Brown’s father’s cousin. Ian has sent both information about and photos of Mr MacDonald who worked for Asiatic Petroleum in China and in all probability Hong Kong during the late 1930s. He appears to have travelled quite a bit during his time in the former and may well have lived and worked in Shanghai. This undated photo […]
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Hugh Farmer: New information in red This brief history of the Lin Ma Hang Lead Mine does not attempt to cover the geology or mineralogy of the area or mine, nor details of the mine workings. For a very full account, which includes this information plus photographs, and further references, try The Story of Lin Ma Hang Mine as shown in Source 1 […]
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HF: Victor Sit Fung Sheun wrote his BA dissertation in 1969 on a subject of great interest. Namely the enormous changes that were taking place in a number of villages in the valley between Castle Peak (ie Tuen Mun) and Yuen Long. The area had been agricultural but by the end of the 60s a large number of factories had […]
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HF: I learnt about this company through the personal effects of Harry Kin Hong Long who briefly worked for Kung Lee from March to July 1923. Harry worked on two ships, the Kwong Mo and the Tin Ming as can be seen in his appointment letter below. Julia Bradshaw has kindly given permission to quote from her book, Golden Prospects…which finds […]
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HF: From the company website “KWP Quarry Co. Ltd. is a joint venture operation between K. Wah Quarry Co. Ltd. and Pioneer Quarries (HK) Ltd. where K. Wah Quarry Co. Ltd. is the majority shareholder. The company is operating Anderson Road Quarry under HK Government Contract NO. GE/96/10 “The Rehabilitation of Anderson Road Quarry”. The Contract commenced in January 1997 […]
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Can you provide more information about Bosco Radio Corp., the Gardner brothers or “Kyoei” company, the latter particularly pre-WW2 and during? Elizabeth Ride has sent this BAAG report. She notes: the page you originally posted [ie up to Post War Activities] was one of two of a document of which the second page was ‘restricted’ (withheld) in the BAAG papers by […]
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Dan Waters has already written a two part article about the history of technical education in Hong Kong, linked below. Dan has kindly given permission to post his article on the same subject which was published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, Volume 28, 1988. The article takes us back over 150 years with initial […]
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HF: The SCMP of 19th August 2015 contains, “A controversial proposal to take Hong Kong’s iconic 110-year-old trams off the roads in Central district to reduce traffic congestion has been met with opposition from concern groups and members of the public online. The proposal, made by a retired government town planner, suggests removing trams from some of the city’s busiest […]
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