Primary School on Minden Ave. for British armed forces children
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Submitted by Munchausen on Tue, 2020-03-17 08:36
In the 1950s there was a primary school at Minden Ave, Kowloon, behind Mody Road. Can anyone comment on the site or anyone actually attended that school?
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Minden Row School
Hello, I attended Minden Row School in 1952/53. First when we were billeted in the Melbourne Hotel in the road just round the corner from the school and then I continued attending after our family moved to the new quarters out at Sekkong, New Territories. I have many vivid memories of the school and some of my classmates of that time. I even have a class photograph. We lived in the New territories for 18 months and I travelled from home by army truck to Tai Po Market station and onward to Kowloon by steam train. Many more memories but will only go into more detail if required/requested
Regards Valerie Eggleton (ne Wood)
Wonderful Valerie! We were
Wonderful Valerie! We were both little kids at the time!
What an epic journey you had daily going to school. Must have taken a long time. It was steam trains those days. I took a bus from Mid Levels Hong Kong Island, then Star Ferry and then Kowloon bus going to school, and thought that was hell of a long way to go to school. It was on Star Ferry when I noticed kids from Murray Barracks going to school in Kowloon. The older ones attended King George V School and the younger one to yours.
It had always since amazed me how kids adapt when they move around the world with their parents a few years at a time. Then in arm services how do they mix when their parents have different ranks?
Valerie, your unique memories and pictures will be a treasure to be shared!!!
Going to School by Steam Train
Yes, how I envy you both for being here in the days of steam trains. When I arrived in 1965 they had all gone, having been replacd by almost equally smoky and noisy diesels.
There are some photographs in this LINK HERE which might enhance those memories.
There is another earlier post from IDJ here
And a short film clip from an old Hong Kong movie showing a train headed by KCR No.28 leaving Tai Po kau station here
Army children and rank
Hello again. You comment on the question of rank among Army children. It never seemed to bother the children (possibly crossed the minds of the parents). Because there were 'all ranks' children at Minden Row, I had a special friendship with a girl called Margaret, whose father was possibly fairly senior rank in the forces and they used to send a Tilley car to pick me up from our quarters in Sekkong to bring me to their private house for play. Another family who lived in the quarters at Sekkong was also senior rank but I was welcomed into their home to play and stay for tea. The only difference I could see was the fact the family had two Amahs (Chinese home helps) rather than the single Ama that the Army employed for my family. Children have a way of removing all barriers don't you think.
Steam trains and Tai Po Market
It was great to see the short film, shot in Tai Po Market. It brought back many memories of my trips to school and going shopping with my mother down to Kowloon. The Army lorry (TCV) took us from the quarters in Sekkong over a mountainous route to Taipo every school morning and we then boarded the train to Kowloon. In the summer months it was stifling hot on the train and we all possessed dark blue paper fans (along with the Chinese people on the train) which we furiously fanned ourselves with to get cool. All the windows were opened as far as they could go and when we reached the long tunnel through a mountain before we reached Kowloon, we children used to rush like mad to close all the windows to keep the billowing smoke from the funnel out of the carriage. We used to arrive at school no doubt covered in smuts!
It is a credit to the parents
It is a credit to the parents that children mixed freely unaware of the parents' ranks. I would imagine the parents did not mix socially as the children did. In those days, possible now still, a member of the sergeants' mess rarely got invited to the officers' mess, and vice versa.
The railway station Tai Po Market was a very ornate structure. It is now a sort of museum and the train does not use it any more. We used to get off the train there, went through the town, then under the railway bridge to walk a long way to our property in the hills. I remember opening the window once out of the tunnel and my amah would tell me, every time, the moving story of the Amah's Rock! I used to think the story was unlikely as the sea was nowhere to be seen!!!
Minden Row Junior School
Minden Row Junior School: https://gwulo.com/node/8937