IDJ has sent a March 1921 China Mail special supplement showing a proposed bridge linking HK Island to Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon. Tymon Mellor: This was not the first time such a bridge had been discussed. “The Harbour Master in 1901 proposed the construction of a cross-harbour bridge between Pottinger Street on the Island and Robinson (Nathan) Road”. See article […]
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HF: There is a record of Ling Nam Hardware being established in 1929. However, it appears to have been been incorporated on 13th October 1939 and dissolved on 5th September 2003. York Lo: The founder of Ling Nam was Chan Ting-yu (陳定宇). He was Cantonese and also founded another flashlight company in Shanghai and according to a 1935 document about Chinese […]
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Elizabeth Ride has sent British Army Aid Group (BAAG) records of shipping movements in Hong Kong in 1944-45 during the Japanese occupation in World War Two. These provide information not only about the ships themselves but what cargo was being brought into and out of Hong Kong during the latter stages of WW2, passengers carried, and of godowns, docks etc […]
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HF: This extract about Iron and Steel comes from a 1963 report on The Mineral Industry of Hong Kong by JM West. The report mentions several companies we have no information about: Fuji Marden – a joint venture between Fuji Iron Works of Japan and Wheelock Marden of Hong Kong Sigma Shipping which in that year was operating a re-rolling […]
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New information in red. Robin Selby has sent an account from 1891 of an aerial ropeway, or actually three, used to transport coal from pier head to coal store in Hong Kong. HF: Though not mentioned by name I am presuming the company concerned is the Taikoo Sugar Refinery which was established by Swire in 1881 and went into production in […]
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IDJ has sent a series of articles about managers at Taikoo Dockyard: “Kenneth Edward Grieg, was born in Perth in 1882 and went to school at Perth Academy. At sixteen he entered on an engineering apprenticeship in the Caledonian Railway locomotive shops at Perth but went to the North Eastern Marine Engineering Co. at Wallsend-on-Tyne in 1900 to complete his […]
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HF: The following has been adapted from the company website: In 1928 Yin Chi Chung founded his hand sewing needle factory in Tsingtao, China. This was the first such company in China. By 1935 the company had attracted attention from other major suppliers of hand sewing needles in the world. Representatives of the German company William Prym GmbH came to visit the […]
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Kwok Tai Motor & Pump Company was established in 1997. It appears to import and sell a wide range of goods including pumps, generators, gardening equipment, agriculture tools…and village vehicles (VVs) of both wheel and crawler type. The company website shows a few examples: The company’s address is G/F, Tai Fook Centre, 17 Kin Tak Street, Yuen Long with a […]
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HF: I found some very raw information listing “selected examples” of companies in pre-WW2 Hong Kong in the book, Hong Kong’s History: State and Society Under Colonial Rule. We already know something about some of these concerns – Indhhk articles are linked Nanyang Brother Tobacco Co. Ltd Li Man Hing Kwok Weaving / Manufacturing Co. Ltd Ng Jim Kai – Financier of the Chinese […]
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HF: It was with interest that I was told recently that Sir Jack Cater began his career in Hong Kong in 1946 as a cadet officer in the Fisheries Department, held various related posts and became Director of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1964. In February 1974, he was appointed first Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) by Governor MacLehose following […]
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