The Oriental Construction Company – 1905 advert
HF: Can anyone supply further information about The Oriental Construction Company which the 1905 advert below says were Consulting and Supervising Engineers and Contractors with branches in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Manila.
The ad says the company were specialists in railways, mines, water supplies, reinforced concrete and concrete piles.
Their 1905 Hong Kong office was in the Alexandra Buildings.
HK Telegraph 23.9.1905
This article was first posted on 10th July 2017.
Below link to ad in Far Eastern Review shows C.W. Mead as president based out of Shanghai and N.M. Holmes as manager of HK office:
https://books.google.com/books?id=lXbKbkXDd0wC&pg=RA1-PA28&dq=%22Oriental+Construction%22+Mead&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiuu-eRlf_UAhWR3oMKHfTvAEcQ6AEIMDAC#v=onepage&q=%22Oriental%20Construction%22%20Mead&f=false
Further search found the profile and picture of the founder/president Charles Wright Mead (1861 Vermont – 1909 Manila) from his alma mater Norwich University:
https://books.google.com/books?id=XJApAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA193&dq=%22Oriental+Construction%22+Holmes&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiag8TAlf_UAhXk8YMKHeLkBH8Q6AEIKzAB#v=onepage&q=%22Oriental%20Construction%22%20Holmes&f=false
From above article we learn that the full name of N.M. Holmes is Norman and he and Mead bought 2500 acres of land in Borneo to grow rubber and coconuts. We also learn that Mead was a director of Canton Hong Kong Ice & Cold Storage (not to be confused with HK Ice & Cold Storage which merged with Dairy Farm) which should be covered in another article.
The firm appear to have dissolved in 1912 based on HK Government Report on below link:
http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1912/25417.pdf