Stephen Davies: An interesting question to which I don’t know the answer, is what the provenance is of the gasometer that still stands (and I believe is in use for stand-by storage) back from the Tin Wan Praya waterfront just outside the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter West entrance (on the north shore). I’m fairly sure it’s been there as long as I […]
» Read more
HF: I have slightly adapted the script below from the original booklet. Thanks to SCT for proofreading the script. Pokfulam reservoir was the first reservoir in Hong Kong, and was completed in 1863 to provide a stable water supply to the City of Victoria. It was one of the first large scale infrastructure projects in the early days of colonisation. […]
» Read more
HF: I have slightly adapted the wording in the following script. Before British rule most locals used to rely on water from streams and wells nearby. With drastic increase in population especially in the City of Victoria a stable water supply became a pressing problem in the colony. But the colonial government was reluctant to claim responsibility for water supply. […]
» Read more
Hugh Farmer: Elizabeth Ride has sent another part of 1945 BAAG report on a variety of subjects in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in WW2. This time the report covers: Motor Bus Services – the removal of most buses from HK, bus services post Sept 1942 Ferry Services – Harbour and Island/NT/Aberdeen, use of auxiliary junks, fuel […]
» Read more
IDJ: Present day residents of Hong Kong can barely envisage that a major electricity generating power station once dominated the waterfront in the bustling North Point district of Hong Kong island. Today all people see from the harbour is a wall of high-rise residential buildings rising up to the hilltops. However, there are clues are in surviving street names in […]
» Read more
Graham Wood has kindly sent the following newspaper article. HF: I have retyped the article… The Wing, which comprised 90 per cent of “Shield” Force, was at sea bound for Okinawa and ultimately the Japanese mainland, with airfield construction as its primary objective on the invasion route to Tokyo, when news was suddenly received of the Japanese surrender. At the […]
» Read more
Elizabeth Ride has sent a British Army Aid Group (BAAG) report from 1st March 1945, An Outline of Conditions in Occupied Hong Kong which was compiled in early 1945 for use by the Civil Affairs Committee which was to take on the rehabilitation of HK after the planned allied invasion. HF: The report is lengthy so I am going to divide it […]
» Read more
“Discount the growing throngs of tourists and worsening traffic and not too much has changed for Tai O’s indigenous townsfolk. Shrimp, fish and squid are still laid out to air dry under the sun as they have for generations. But residents from one of the west Lantau town’s fishing villages are beginning to discover an additional use for sunshine through […]
» Read more
Charles Gordon Stewart Mackie was a Scottish businessman in Hong Kong and member of the Legislative Council and Executive Council of Hong Kong. He was born on 9th January 1880 and died on 17th March 1966. C. Gordon Mackie [by which name he seems to have been more commonly known] was associated with China and Hong Kong and head of […]
» Read more
Elizabeth Ride has sent a British Army Aid Group (BAAG) report from 1st March 1945, An Outline of Conditions in Occupied Hong Kong which was compiled in early 1945 for use by the Civil Affairs Committee which was to take on the rehabilitation of HK after the planned allied invasion. HF: The report is lengthy so I am going to divide it […]
» Read more