Hugh Farmer: In early colonial Hong Kong shipwrights used traditional skills to build junks and sampans and later acquired new skills by building western style ships. A considerable change came with the construction of dock facilities to build and repair iron steamships. John Lamont completed HK’s first dry dock in Aberdeen in 1860. The Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company’s dry dock […]
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York Lo left a comment below our article, Lui Che Woo – King of Hong Kong Quarries – two newspaper articles, linked below, which adds additional infomation about Lui Che-woo and Anderson Road quarry in an SCMP article. The article begins: Tycoon Lui Che-woo, a pioneer in Hong Kong’s quarrying industry who later built his wealth in the property and casino industries, […]
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Bonnie Manzon (aka Bonnie Ko) recently left a comment attached to our article,Hong Kong Clays and Kaolin Company (香港磁泥有限公司) – Kaolin Mine, Cha Kwo Ling. “As a very young mother of three, we were living in ” the Bungalow” on the mining site of Hk Clays and Kaolin Co. in Cha Kwo Ling Village from 1980 to 1983. I have […]
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This article uses an extract from the entry about LI Sing and other members of his family published in the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography. Both the author York Lo, and publisher, HK University Press, have given permission for this to be posted here. Please note of the images shown here only that of Li Sing himself was included in […]
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HF: A visit on 6th Feb 2014 to the Hong Kong Museum of History led to the following information about The Hongkong Cotton-Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing Company Ltd 1898 -1914. This was the first major cotton spinning company in Hong Kong and was formed in 1898 by Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co Ltd. (see article below). A photograph of the works […]
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HF: Our recently posted article, Beryl Mining at Devil’s Peak, brought forward a comment from Fiona Soliman which I repost here: Thank you for a fascinating article. I am currently researching my family tree, and among some of my grandfather’s documents I discovered a mini-autobiography in which he explains that, while he served in Hong Kong with the RAEC in 1952-55, […]
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Hugh Farmer: Kai Tak was named after two businessmen, Sir Kai Ho Kai and his son-in-law Mr. Au Tak, who were involved in a company formed to reclaim land in Kowloon Bay in 1912 for a residential housing scheme. However the scheme failed and the land was left vacant. Sir Kai died over ten years before the airfield welcomed its first […]
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HF: From our archives with thanks to IDJ for the source of information. “Stonebreakers in the early twentieth century. Granite in Hong Kong is of high quality and abundant. As a common construction material for columns, door frames and floors, the demand for granite was large. Because of its weight granite was transported by stone-boat by water from the quarry […]
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“Mount Butler quarry is located between Jardine’s Lookout and Sin Ma Shan on Hong Kong Island. The quarry started operation in the 1940s and ceased operation in the 1990s. Part of the quarry is now the base of [the] Explosive Ordinance Disposal Bureau for the handling and storage of explosives; while part of the site is the Firing Range of […]
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Carol Webster has been in touch asking if we have any information about her great grandfather, Walter George Babb. Carol knows that at the time of the 1911 UK census he was working for the Asiatic Petroleum Company as a watchman and living at 42 Victoria Square, Portishead, Somerset, England. She asks if we have any records of the APC’s […]
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