Edward Francis GINGLE (aka Gingles / Jingles) [c.1893-1960]

Mr Gingles was the cook at the civilian camp near the airport at Kai Tak.

My mother Joyce (Guest) remembers him fondly. She says he was a lovely man and she "caught up" with him after WWII at his restaurant and he said "Little Joycie all growed up".

Joyce remembers that during their internment Mr Gingles lost so much weight that his breasts hung nearly to his waist.

George Guest, her brother, was deemed too old for school and assisted Mr Gingles in the kitchen (she says this with a laugh :D)

Edward Francis Gingle was born on August 17th, 1893 or 1894 in Ashland, Wisconsin (documents differ but 1893 is more likely). The 1900 US Census states that the birthplace of both parents - Joseph and Mary - was 'Poland, Germany'. This suggests to me an area that was sometimes called East Prussia. Joseph immigrated to the USA in 1872 and Mary LeSavage followed ten years later. He is described as a 'farmer', while Edward of course attended school. The family were now living in Carson, a town about 190 miles south of Ashland. They were still there for the Wisconsin state census of 1895, although Joseph has been a foreman of some kind (I can't make out the descriptor) for 12 months.

It seems from the 1910 census that the family were going by the name of Grabarkewicz, and the parents birthplace has become 'Poland, Germany'. Joseph was now a labourer on the railroad and Edward worked at a paper mill - he had not attended school since September 1st, 1909. Joseph and Mary had been married for 19 years and the family was still living at Carson.

The 1920 census finds Edward in the navy, serving on the USS McDougal. His hometown is given as Junction, another Wisconsin town.  His father's birthplace is given as Illinois and his mother's as Wisconsin, which suggests he was trying to disguise his German origins - perhaps he enlisted during WW1. A family tree on Ancestry.com gives his wife's name as Sai So (Susan) Kwok, while on the death certificate of the couple's daughter she is 'Suzanne (DK)' - probably meaning that her maiden name was unknown.

This daughter, Mabel Gingle, was born on December 18th 1926 and died on November 18th, 1974 in Pasadena, Texas. 'Vaughan' was her married name. She was born in Hong Kong, which makes it hard to piece together the chronology of her father's relationship with the colony. If Susan/Suzanne was his wife in 1920 then perhaps he been there before that year, returned in the mid-nineteen twenties and finally retired there to become a restauranteur in the 1930s. Perhaps Susan/Suzanne was his second wife - and there are of course a number of other possibilities.

Source: documents on Ancestry.com

Newspaper articles about Gingle link his family to Green Bay, Wisconsin. I can find no record of this - the strongest link is with Junction City, about 115 miles from Green Bay, although in 1948 his widowed mother was living at Fond du Lac, about 75 miles away.

Thanks for the update. I was wondering what became of him and Gingle ? It also reminds me of those backward places I have visited, many recently such as Deli of Timor Leste, where some of their best restaurants are with similar air and decor - the same atmosphere- like stepping back into a time tunnel back to my childhood days of some familiar places 60 years ago like Blue Bird 美利權 ABC 愛皮西 and Cherikoff 車厘歌夫, without forgetting my favorite 加拿大餐廳 at 太平行 of Queen’s Road Central

Gingle's slideshow

In the newpaper clip his age was given a 75. Counting back from 1960 would be 1885 as the year of birth. So either the age of 75 is incorrect or the date of birth (1893) in this entry.