James Chan: The SCMP of 26th October 2015 contained an article which began: Hong Kong’s first locally designed electric bus will roll out onto the city’s roads next month in a test run its creators hope will boost the local electric vehicle industry. The 12.5-tonne single deck electric bus, designed by the Hong Kong Productivity Council and Hong Kong Automotive Parts […]
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York Lo’s article, Peter H.T. Woo – Father of the Hong Kong Electronics Industry, shows the close connection between the electronics industry in Japan and Hong Kong in the late 1950s. York writes, In March 1958 Peter Woo founded Champagne Engineering Corporation Ltd and began assembling transistor radios in Hong Kong using Japanese transistors, making Champagne the first electronics firm […]
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HF: John Laird Wright worked for MacDonald and Company’s shipyard in Hong Kong from 1907 to 1908. He then worked for Green Island Cement Company in Macau which he left in 1910. This obituary comes from an Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Obituary in 1934: John Laird Wright was for seventeen years a member of the Anglo- Persian Oil Company’s staff in various […]
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HF: Shewan, Tomes & Co. was one of the leading trading companies in Hong Kong and China during the late 19th and early 20th century. When Russell & Co., then one of the largest mercantile firms in the Far East, went out of business in 1891, former employees Scotsman Robert Shewan and Englishman Charles Alexander Tomes took over the remains of the operation and changed […]
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Joe MacDonald was Ian Brown’s father’s cousin. Ian has sent both information about and photos of Mr MacDonald who worked for Asiatic Petroleum in China and in all probability Hong Kong during the late 1930s. He appears to have travelled quite a bit during his time in the former and may well have lived and worked in Shanghai. This undated photo […]
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IDJ and HF: The origin of Schmidt & Co., (Hong Kong) Limited can be dated back to 110 years ago when Paul Schmidt founded the Schmidt Group of Companies in Tokyo under the name of Schmidt Shoten in 1896. The Group opened its first office in Beijing, China in 1911. In the following years, additional branches were established in major […]
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HF: This article has been extracted from Twentieth Century Impressions…All images are attached to the article. I cannot find any information about the “Imperia del Mundo” Manila cigars mentioned in the article or the “special brand known as El Oriente”. “It was in 1868 that Mr. Kruse, a shrewd man of business, laid the foundation of the extensive import trade […]
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HF: Richard Charles Lee (b. 7th March 1905, d. 6th July 1983) was the son of Lee Hysan (1881-1928). The story of his life can be found in the book written by his daughter Vivienne Poy, Building Bridges: The Life & Times of Richard Charles Lee, linked below which as you will see can be read online. Lee had extensive […]
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Mike T: Courtesy of the South China Morning Post’s “Taking control” by Neil Gough, Sunday, 13 February, 2011: “In 1949, on the eve of the Korean war, Ho incorporated a firm in Hong Kong to oversee his various import and export trades, Agencia Comercial Progresso (ACP). In August 1959, the US Commerce Department banned Ho and ACP from dealing in American […]
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HF: Our article, 1924 Report on the Commerial Development of the Port of Hong Kong, begins by mentioning the visit of Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice to Hong Kong in 1920. Fitzmaurice, as a partner in a firm of Consulting Engineers, had been invited to offer advice on general improvements to Hong Kong’s harbour and also specific areas within that subject. The […]
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