The General Electric Company of China Ltd, in Hong Kong, information needed
Can anyone provide further information about the GEC of China Ltd in Hong Kong? This 1924 advert has their location at Queen’s Buildings In Hong Kong.
Until corrected I am presuming that the company was a subsidiary of the British General Electric Company (often abbreviated to GEC) which came into being in 1886 (1888?) when the original General Electric Apparatus Company changed its name. And not the American, General Electric (GE).
HK Telegraph 31.5.1924
General Electric Company Of China Ltd, Shangai Office, 1917, Source: http://www.virtualshanghai.net
This article was first posted on 8th May 2017.
See: The Virtual Shanghai Project is a research and resource platform on the history of Shanghai from the mid-nineteenth century to nowadays. It incorporates various sets of documents: essays, original documents, photographs, maps, quantitative data, etc. The objective of the project is to write a history of the city through the combined mobilization of these various types of documents.
I used to work for the General Electric Company of Hong Kong Limited, which was the management services business, and GEC (Hong Kong) Ltd, which was the trading and construction business, both of whom resided in the CC Wu Building on Lockhart Road in Wanchai until 2000. The China company wasn’t part of the business when I joined in 1995, but the Marconi business was part of the GEC empire, and was a major part of the GEC history. After 2000 the GEC business was split into two companies, the trading business was acquired by Shriro Hong Kong Ltd and was renamed GELEC (Hong Kong) Limited, which still exists in Hong Kong today and the other became Marconi Communications, moving to 1063 Kings Road, which is now defunct.
I can help with a fair bit of history after 1995, such as projects won and delivered in the region, but not so much before that, suffice to say, I’m reasonably certain the China named business was a part of the GEC empire.
This was the English company of the same name. I believe the American General Electric Company was operating at that time under the name of the Anderson-Meyer Company, a Danish trading company partially owned by General Electric. I have quite a bit of historical material about the American GE company, including several books detailing their history in China. Happy to help if this is useful.
Hello Stephen
Thanks for leaving your comment about both General Electric Companies. And for your offer of being able to provide information regarding the American GE Company. I will contact you directly about this if you don’t mind.
Best wishes
Hugh Farmer