Martyn Cornell has kindly given permission for extracts from his article, A Short History of Beer in Hong Kong, to be posted on our website. The article was published in the Journal of the Brewery History Society, Brewery History, Issue 156, 2012 Martyn has his own blog, Zythophile – Beer now and then, linked below. Despite its title the article is […]
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Stephen Davies rightly laments: Some of our maritime heritage, like the older lighthouses, are…gazetted monuments… but by far and away the majority of the maritime past that made Hong Kong what it is, from the historic dockyards, shipyards, wharves, jetties and basins…are dead, buried and for the most part forgotten. From a note attached to Stephen’s article, The Principal Datum: Some […]
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HF: Olyphant & Co. was a merchant trading house in 19th-century China. From its initial involvement there, the firm expanded into other countries including Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Olyphant & Co’s business dealings in Peru caused the company to collapse in 1878. The firm was founded in Canton by David WC Olyphant (1789-1851) and Charles N Talbot after their former employer, King […]
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Angela Chan recently posted a comment on our article, Kau Wa Keng Old Village, 九華徑 – recent photographs, which says that there were indeed small factories, namely making gloves and shoes, in the village as suggested in the article. Angela has kindly expanded on her initial comment with the following information and images: We had relatives and friends working at the glove […]
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Stephen Davies: Further information about the Sainam and her sister ship the Nanning. I now know that the owner, Sai Hing Steam Ship Co., was originally a Chinese firm offering Canton to Macao river ferry services, formed as a syndicate to buy four ex-Swire ships (see SCMP, 9th November 1917, p.11) – the ships were the Nanning, Sainam, San Ui and Lin […]
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IDJ has sent a series of articles about managers at Taikoo Dockyard: The first manager, appointed in 1907, was Philip Forster Nicholson, who was born at West Bolden near Sunderland in 1872, his father being a North East Coast shipowner. In 1898 he joined R.& W. Hawthorne Leslie & Co., Ltd, and in 1902 was appointed their Shipyard Manager at […]
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Michele Cottage has kindly sent the photograph below and the following information: The photo below is of Mr and Mrs T S Wong Managing Director of Amoy Canning Hong Kong and Singapore. My grandfather is standing between them. Believed to be taken late in the 1930s or early 1940s in Hong Kong York Lo adds: Very precious picture! Wong (1912-1978) […]
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IDJ: The majority of engineering projects of all types generally evolve from an idea, to a sketch and move through stages to become physical models that can be discussed, commented on and hopefully approved. These can stretch from major civil engineering projects such as the airport and its infrastructure all the way through to designs for small manufactured consumer goods. The […]
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HF: IDJ has sent several photos. As interesting as the ships themselves, ready to be dismantled, are the backgrounds showing Kwun Tong and Cheung Sha Wan in May 1963. Ship building and ship breaking were once two major industries in Hong Kong, of world importance and employing large numbers of people. There are a few small shipyards still left, mainly […]
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HF: The following article has been extracted from the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography. The article about Ngan Shing-kwan was written by May Holdsworth and Eva Kwok and first published in the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography, edited by May Holdsworth and Christopher Munn. The publisher, HK University Press, has kindly granted permission for it to be posted here, but retains copyright […]
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