York Lo: Shum Choy-wah (岑載華) – HK Industrial Leader from the 1940s to the 1960s Left: Portrait of Shum Choy-wah wearing his medal of honor (Kung Sheung Daily News, 1969-12-26); Right: Shum Choy-wah and fellow CMA leaders posing with the Governor at the Amoy Canning booth at the 7th Chinese Products Expo in 1949. From left to right: Wong Tok-sau, Governor […]
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HF: The following notes are an attempt to order chronologically events in AH Rennie’s life mentioned on data cards from the Carl Smith collection held at the HK Public Records Office. I have attempted below to include all references to Rennie in these cards, as recorded by Carl Smith, and which are hand written or typed. However, they are sometimes […]
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York Lo: Hong Kong Enamelware Factory (香港搪瓷廠) 1953 ad for Hong Kong Enamelware Factory Hong Kong Enamelware Factory was one of the leading enamelware manufacturers in HK in the 1950s with its factory located at 608 Castle Peak Road in Kowloon and its office in Edinburgh House in Central.The firm was known for its Diamond brand of enamelware products. Incorporated in […]
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York Lo: The Tam Brothers behind Wai Yee Co, King’s Shirts and Yau Sun Shoes From the 1920s to 1970s, the families of two brothers – Tam Lap-chiu and Tam Lap-kee – were active in both the manufacturing and retail of garments and shoes. Old timers might recall their retail outlets on Des Voeux Road Central in Sheung Wan. Tam […]
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York Lo: Lynhall Land Investment (聯合置業) – Real Estate Powerhouse from the late 1950s and early 1960s Lynhall Land ad from 1958 featuring 7 of its properties that were available for sale that year (left to right): Majestic, Kingland, Hankow, Maylun, Phoenix, Lido and Mido(華僑日報, 1958-01-03) From 1945 to 1960, the population of Hong Kong jumped sixfold from 500,000 to […]
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IDJ has sent an extract from a book by Martin Barnett published in 1984 about the history of tramways in Hong Kong. HF: Chevalier R Pescio was an Italian with an exotic name and an alluring proposal. Namely to build a tramway between Victoria and Aberdeen. He repeatedly tried to obtain government interest in this scheme between 1906 and 1910 […]
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HF: Harry Kin Hong Long divided his life between New Zealand and Hong Kong. In the latter he worked for two companies, Kung Lee Steam Ship Co. and HK and Yaumati Ferry Co. Harry’ s daughter, Judy Chan, has kindly sent a considerable amount of biographical detail about him. In this article I have extracted that which relates directly to […]
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York Lo: Sunbeam Manufacturing (日昇製造廠): from torchlights to kitchenware Left: old Sunbeam factory; Right: Sunbeam Centre today Founded in 1929 (this is based on the company’s own description although several external sources cite 1931 as the inception date), Sunbeam is one of the oldest industrial enterprises in Hong Kong and one of the few that continues to thrive to this […]
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HF: IDJ has kindly sent the following newspaper article which, I think, was published in the Hong Kong Daily Press on 1st June 1939. Thanks to SCT for proofreading this retyped version of the original version of the newspaper article. HONGKONG PERSONALITY INTRODUCED – CAPT. R.W.THOMAS ”CAPPY THOMAS” – such is the nickname his many friends on the Kowloon piers […]
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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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