HF: This Michael Rogge film starts outside Crocodile Garments Ltd, underneath whose sign is shown in brackets, United Shirts Factory I am assuming the next couple of scenes are of Crocodile Garments employees and locations:- 0.11-0.30 what is the man cutting out with the electric saw? 0.40-0.55 material hanging out to dry? any idea of the location? 0.56-1.03 what is […]
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Mark Regan has kindly typed out this short report from the HK Telegraph of 17th March 1906. Conflagration at Kowloon Cement Works Ablaze Fire broke out in the cooperage department of the Green Island Cement Works, Hunghom, at about eight o’clock last evening. When the brigades from the Kowloon Dockland Yau-ma-ti Police Station arrived the flames were burning furiously and […]
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“C” says: The Chinese name of the company has always been 淘化大同, not 淘化大隆. Nowadays it is often abbreviated as 淘大. Hugh Farmer: The origins of this well known Hong Kong company are somewhat confusing, at least for someone unable to read Chinese, in that they involve a variety of English translations and merges between these companies. I have tried to […]
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Hugh Farmer: Jane Taylor added this comment to the article, Green Island Cement Company – stunning photos, “ I can confirm that the building in the foreground of the photograph beneath the picture of the rotary kilns was, indeed, the manager’s house. My grandfather, Robert Taylor served as manager (I think from the late 1920s) until his retirement in 1949. Recently discovered […]
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York Lo: Ying Ngan-ting (應雁亭, 1909-1972): Gold Magnate and Umbrella Manufacturer Left: an old ad for See Loy Umbrella Factory – likely in the 1960s based on the description on the right which mentioned that it has been popular for over eight decades. Right: Ying Ngan-ting (right) with Kwan Yuk-chi (left) of Hang Lung Bank as the new vice chairman […]
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Paul Onslow: With the destruction and loss of most of the Dairy Farm archives and virtually all photographic material (read further on for more details) much of what is known about the history of Dairy Farm was documented by the great Hong Kong historian Nigel Cameron in his 1986 book ‘The Milky Way – The History of Dairy Farm’. Nigel carried […]
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Hugh Farmer writes. Many thanks to IDJ for supplying both the image and text. One of the first manufacturing industries in colonial Hong Kong was preserved ginger, as well as various fruits, grown mainly in Guangzhou. And one of the first such companies was Man Loong Ginger Factory. The description of the company below, written in about 1908, mentions that […]
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HF: The following has been extracted from the Company’s history on its website (linked below). This material is copyright but can be copied for non-commercial purposes. Its plant is at 2-4 Dai Shing Street, Tai Po Industrial Estate, Tai Po, HK. In 1984 Thomas De La Rue PLC set up a banknote printing plant in Tai Po. In April 1996 […]
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Elizabeth Ride: Extracts from reports in the BAAG Intelligence Summaries. 1. Layout. [Map reference 223585: GSGS 3868 HK & New Territories 1/20,000] 2. During hostilities.“Superficial damage was caused by enemy bombing on the first day of the war. Dock gates were not damaged.” 3. During the Occupation. 1942. “The materials left in the Kowloon Docks are rapidly diminishing. There is […]
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York Lo: Synthetic Marble Pioneer Dr. Andrew Liu and his Family While his father physician Dr. Liu Yan-tak and sibling jurist Benjamin Liu and politician Dorothy Liu might have a higher profile, Dr. Andrew Tze-chiu Liu (1929-2000) left his mark in HK industries as the founder of Marble Synthetic Products, the first local manufacturer of synthetic marble in the 1970s […]
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