Walter George Babb, Employee of the Asiatic Petroleum Co, UK, 1911 – information wanted

Carol Webster has been in touch asking if we have any information about her great grandfather, Walter George Babb.

Carol knows that at the time of the 1911 UK census he was working for the Asiatic Petroleum Company as a watchman and living at 42 Victoria Square, Portishead, Somerset, England.

She asks if we have any records of the APC’s employees in the UK. I am afraid we don’t nor do we of those who worked for the company in China, Hong Kong or elsewhere. We have a little information about two employees, Joe MacDonald and John ‘Jack’ Kitto which is given in the article APC, China – family connections, linked below.

Carol continues that Walter Babb lived in Portishead with his wife Emily, nee Anstice, and their two children Walter George Babb Jr. and Alice Amelia Babb. Alice married Ernest Lawrence of the Royal Navy who died at sea in 1917. Alice died of influenza in 1920.  Walter the elder and Emily also had Mabel Guy living with them, Carol doesn’t know anything about  her other than at the age of 18 or 19 she married a Daniel Vigus at Long Ashton.

She is also very keen to find anything about her Great Grandfather’s father, also known as Walter George Babb! She believes he was called George and was born about 1862 in Taunton, England.

HF: If you can provide any information which can help Carol in her search please leave a comment below this article or contact me directly.

And, if you can provide information about other employees of the Asiatic Petroleum Company or the company itself, especially in Hong Kong or China, we would be delighted to hear from you.

I have not come across anything regarding the APC’s operations in the UK, it is not mentioned in Grace’s Guide which is a fount of knowledge about industrial history there.

The APC was a joint venture founded in 1903 between the Shell and Royal Dutch oil companies and which operated in Asia in the early 20th century. Its corporate headquarters were on The Bund in Shanghai.

The image shown on the Home Page of this article is a contemporary photograph of The Asiatic Petroleum Building, No.1 The Bund, Shanghai, courtesy of Nicholas Kitto.

This article was first posted on 3rd November 2015.

Related Indhhk articles:

1. Asiatic Petroleum Company, China – contemporary photographs of its Shanghai building
2. Asiatic Petroleum Company, China – family connections
3. Asiatic Petroleum Company, Joe MacDonald – employee, China/HK late 1930s
4. Asiatic Petroleum Company, China – Shanghai building, further information