IDJ posted a 1912 ad for CE Warren & Co. as "monumentalists". This is a photo of my grandfather, Charles Warren's own grave in St Michael's Catholic cemetery, seemingly newly erected in 1923. When his son, Leslie, took over the management of the company in June 1923 on his father's death, this would have been the first gravestone he and his brother Arthur, an artist, would have designed. The lily carving is unusual. After a long search, when I finally found the grave at dusk during my first visit to Hong Kong in 2004, the front was completely overgrown, unapproachable and masked by a tree, perhaps the one originally planted behind it. I identified the grave from behind only by the feel of the lily carving. Strangely, there is no CEW & Co. Ltd. imprint - only the plot number 4379. This part of the cemetery is now very crowded. Some years ago I posted a photo of a typical company imprint at gwulo.com/comment/reply/3865/19809 Rather unfairly referred to by his family as "The Old Man", Charles Warren died of pneumonia aged 51 at his home The Towers, 20 Broadwood Road just a month after his newly married son Leslie and his wife, Cicely arrived in Hong Kong. He had been working in Hong Kong since his arrival aged 23 in about 1895, when he signed up as an overseer in PWD and when he is also recorded as being a gunner in the HKVDC.
Jill
