HF: The following article has been extracted from the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography. The article about George Ernest Marden and John Louis Marden was written by Robert Nield 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 […]
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York Lo: The Wongs and the Hungs – Pre-War pioneers of HK real estate and philanthropists The four founding brothers of the Wong and the Hung families who donated the Four Friends Library at the Shimen Middle School in their hometown in the 1930s. Left to right: Wong Tze-lam, Wong Kin-chi, Hung Mak-yuen, Hung Sean-chau Natives of the Nanhai prefecture […]
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York Lo: Tung Hing Lung Engineering Works (東興隆機器廠) Left: Tung Hing Lung ad from the 1950s with pictures of some of its firefighting products; Right Tung Hing Lung founder Chan Din (WKYP, 1963-12-5) Tung Hing Ling is one of the oldest and largest manufacturer of fire fighting equipment and provider of related installation services and maintenance in Hong Kong. A […]
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HF: In January 1904 Alfred Dickinson and Company, the consulting engineers for Hong Kong Tramways Ltd wrote to the under-secretary of state at the Colonial Office. The letter states that the company had discussed with Sir Paul Chater the possibility of constructing a tramway system on the Kowloon Peninsula and of extending this as far as Shum Chun in China. […]
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York Lo: Live Long and Prosper: Longevity Condensed Milk (壽星公煉奶), Black and White Evaporated Milk (黑白淡奶) and Friesland Ice Cream (菲仕蘭雪糕) Left: Longevity milk from 1980 HK TV commercial (YouTube); Right: Friesland Ice cream factory on Hennessy Road in 1953 (Gwulo) Since the 1930s and 1940s, Longevity sweetened condensed milk and Black & White evaporated milk have become staples […]
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HF: Tymon Mellor has sent a report by Sir David J Owen dated 24th February 1941 on Future Control and Development of the Port of Hong Kong. Let’s start with the scope of the report: The Report contains a wealth of information both about the history of the port since early colonial days, the contemporary situation in 1941 and possible […]
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York Lo: China Leather Shoe Co (中國皮鞋公司) China Leather Shoe Co’s Wanchai branch on the left (red sign) in 1962 Earlier in the group, we have covered several popular shoe brands and chain of shoe stores in the 1950s and 1960s such as Crane, Po Shing, Sanda, Yau Sun and Fung Keong. China Leather Shoe Co was another popular chain […]
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York Lo: Crowning Achievement: Crown Motors (皇冠汽車) and 50 years of Toyota in HK Article about the opening of Crown Motors in 1966 with picture of one of its Toyotas (KSDN, 1966-12-21) Earlier on the website we covered three auto dealers which primarily focused on British cars that are part of the Inchcape group – Metro, Dodwell and Gilman. The […]
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Nicholas Kitto has a family connection to the Asiatic Petroleum Company. His grandfather, John ‘Jack’ Kitto, was recruited directly from school by Royal Dutch Shell in 1910. After training in their London office he travelled to Shanghai on the Trans-Siberian Railway and commenced work with The Asiatic Petroleum Company (North China) Limited on 16 September 1912. He remained with APC […]
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York Lo: From Dodwell Motors and Gilman Motors to Metro-Dodwell and MD Motors As a result of a series of acquisitions by the Inchcape group in the late 1960s, Metro Cars, the distributor of Austin automobiles covered earlier merged with Dodwell Motors and Gilman Motors to form Metro-Dodwell, the largest auto dealer in Hong Kong in the early 1970s. Below […]
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