Gilman Motors [????-c.1976]

Thanks for writing, and for including the photo. Here's what I found:

• Dan Waters gives us an introduction to the early days of Gilman in this document.
• As Alastair notes, you can find senior Gilman staff in the role of Chairman or Vice-chairman at the HK General Chamber of Commerce between 1890 and 1975.
• These Harrison Forman photos show a Gilman Motors garage at the eastern junction of Hennessy & Johnston Roads, but again we never see more than half the building in any one photo! I wonder if your dad knows when it moved from here to Gloucester Road?
• Inchcape aquired them in 1969:
  "Through Peter Heath, originally a director of the Borneo Company, Inchcape acquired Gilman & Company, one of the great trading groups of Hong Kong. Gilman & Company was seeking an acquirer but did not wish to be taken over by an existing Hong Kong business."

What else can we add?

Regards, David

As far I can recall, Gilman  besides  Dragages was aso responsible for the transportation of buidling material of the reclaimed runway at Kai Tak in the late 1950s.

Thanks for the extra photo above. Please can I ask why you think that's a Wallace Harper garage? A search on the internet shows they were (and in fact still are) a distributor of Ford cars in Hong Kong, so it seems they'd be competitors to Gilman. Also if you zoom in to the photo above, you can see 'Gilman Motors' is written on the building, not just on the sign above it.

I ran a search for 'gilman' between 1930 and 1960 in the HKPL newspapers collection, and there were a couple of mentions of a 'Gilman's Pumping Station' in 1938, and a Gilman's 'gasoline filling station in Wanchai' in 1940. I wonder if that's what we can see in the photo above?

Maybe Wallace Harper owned the larger building in the background, marked 'Shell' ?

A few other mentions of Gilman's in the papers:

• 1932: "Gilman's for Hillmans" at the Duro Garage, Nathan Road, Kowloon
• 1938: "Gilman's used car show, which opened at their Used Car Department Cameron Road, Kowloon, yesterday..."
• 1941: "Gilman & Co. have reported to the police the loss of two brass name-plates, valued at $25, from the pillars outside No. 4A Des Voeux Rd Central" - I guess this was their head office
• 1947: "Gilman's Motor Show commences today. 132, Nathan Road"

There's also this 1941 full page advert, listing all the different products they represent (you can click it and zoom in to see the detail):

One final quote from a 1934 newspaper, on the opening of Gilman's wine & spirits department with a sherry party:

"Sherry parties" are now extremely popular in England, due to its anti-fattening qualities. The increase in sherry drinking has been almost spectacular in recent years.

So there you have it - swap the pint of Carlsberg for a pint of sherry, and stay slim!

Hi there,

Sherry is a fortified wine with 15% of alcohol or slightly more.  If you drink a pint of Sherry like you gulp down a pint of beer, I'm pretty sure you will be stoned within minutes.  :-P 

Just remember, good wines are for sipping, whether they are fortified or not.

Best Regards,

T

1950s Johnston Rd looking west. The Gilman sign appears above the gas station. In later years as a guide for minibus drivers to halt and drop off passengers, this triangular piece of land at the eastern end of Hennessy and Johnston Roads would be known as 'Harper' and/or  'Gas Station' in Cantonese.

Thanks for the extra info. Looking at the two later photos, I see that the Gilman signs are free-standing on the roof (wonder how well they survived typhoons!). They cheekily cover a large part of the wall behind, forcing the Ford & Shell signs up & out to the edges.

Also the 1950's photo shows there was a shell filling station behind Gilman's even before the higher building was built at that spot.

A couple more snippets on Harper. From the Ford Hong Kong website:

As a member of the Sime Darby Group, Ford Hong Kong (Wallace Harper & Co Ltd) was established in Hong Kong 1922, probably the earliest Ford dealership for the region.

And the problems they faced in the 1960s.

Regards, David

PS T, don't worry - just kidding about the pints of sherry. I much prefer a pint of creme de menthe..... (it's a noisy Billy Connolly video - turn your PC's volume down before clicking!)

a lane off Queen's Road in Sheung Wan - named after the company? Similar to Jardine's Bazaar in Causeway Bay

Richard James Gilman, set up Gilman's Bazaar on land bought from Alexander Matheson about the year 1846

They were essentially a tea- trading firm who, it is said, never touched contraband. ...

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Gilman%27s%20Bazaar%22&oe=utf-8&client...

That's a great story, thanks!

I don't remember seeing that factory, but it might be in one of the photos of Kai Tak we already have - click here to see them.

Let us know if you find anything - or if you don't, if you can let us know the address that might help us find something in future.

Gilman Motors at the eastern junction of Hennessy and Johnston Roads as viewed here

This is a screen capture from a 1967 film starring Jack Palance called "Kill a Dragon".

It shows the Gilman building as viewed  (I believe) from Tonnochy Road. But if that is so then it looks as though Jaffe Road was not a throughfare here at the time...?

I remember Gilman very well as it had a showroom in the old Gloucester Arcade. My aunt had a friend in Gilman and she drove a Hilman and gave me my first decent watch - a GP. 

Gilman Motors was a gas station dealer for Caltex.  The Caltex station at the corner of Johnston Road and Hennessy Road is still around although it is now located on the ground floor of building built on the same site.  Wallace Harper occupied the site adjacent to the Caltex station.  Wallace Harper had a close relationship with Shell.  Shell eventually sold the site in the 2000's and a new commercial building was built.  A decision Shell may well regret as it lost its flagship station at Asian House and the one in front of the Excelsior Hotel.  One may have to go quite some way to find a Shell station on HK Island today.

Gilaman and Co is still around today selling appliances, being the agent for Philco, Whirlpool........

My mother, Melba (da Cruz) Wake also worked for Gilman Motors in Hong Kong as a Personal Secretary as did a friend of the family, Olga Rodrigues.    Unfortunatley, I am not sure of the dates.

I joined Gilmen Apple Division in mid 80, the office was in Tai Yau Plaza, You are right, for some reasons there are not too many trackable histories of Gilman and Jardine compare to other sizable companies, they two have one thing in common, both british owned. Before 80, Gilman did not focus too much on direct retail but B2B (distribution) thus their explosure was relatively lower than other retail companies. Most people didn't even know their head office location.

Gilman also acted as shipping agent for a couple of liner servics.  I was working for Jebsen & Co ´s Shipping Department and we held close contact with each other on shipping matters. Mr. Hubble was the manager for that department end fiftieth.

Do you mind to reveal your fathers name? I used to have some friends at Gilmans.

To add to the confusion: the Interim Defence Plan of 1939 places PB 56 "Under verandah of garage, junction of Toonochy and Gloucester Roads". PB 57 is "Triangle of ground, front of Gilman's garage". The map reference for this PB approximates the eastern intersection of Johnston Rd and Hennessy Rd.

My sister Susan Ware has already posted about our mother Melba (da Cruz) Wake who worked at Gilmans as a secretary- it would have been early 1960's I think- I remember looking over the new Ford Cortina  with my dad...! 

Found this one on Flickr showing Gilman Motors:

Nathan Road 1954, by stuartjames5

Hi.

I’m on mission to record my old e type Jaguar's full history.

It was delivered brand new to Hong Kong in  Februar 1967 and sold by Gilman & Co - Gilman Motors.

I can send you phots if you like.

It's colour is Pale Primrose.

It was landed here in NZ in 86 and registered in Napier on the 22.1.86 with 23,498mile on her.

I wonder if your dad might remember the car at all?

Regards

Would love to hear from anyone with any knowledge of the sale of Jaguar motor cars by Gilman & Co in the 1950s, especially the sports cars. There were some ...

Jaguar sold through Gilmans a new XKSS (roadgoing D Type) XKSS757 to K.Y. Cheang.  Ron Hardwick won the 1959 Macau GP in it and Martin Redfern won the 1960 Macau GP in it. Do you have any pictures of your 'old man' with the car?

Here is a history of Gilman's, copied from HONG KONG HONGS WITH LONG HISTORIES
AND BRITISH CONNECTIONS
DAN WATERS*
Richard James Gilman, a tea-taster, who worked for the old
established company of Dent's in Canton, set up a partnership, known
as Gilman and Bowman, in a Canton factory in 1840. By 1863
the firm was also represented at Kiukiang, Hankow and Tientsin,
employing 21 staff. In many ways the firm was similar to Dodwell's,
but on a smaller scale, and it was substantially involved in shipments
of tea from Shanghai and Foochow in the 1870s.
Gilman's was also active in the import-export trade and shipping,
and in 1862 it was appointed agents for Lloyd's at Canton, Hankow,
Foochow, Hong Kong and Macau. In these ports its reputation in
shipping circles was high, especially after the famous tea race of 1866.
'Taeping (sic) Yeung Hong' ("iCH¥; fr) (Great Peace Foreign Firm)
chartered the 'Taiping' (named after Gilmans) which beat 'Ariel', the
rival ship, by 20 minutes over a 99-day voyage from Foochow to London.
Gilman's also played an important part in promoting the Hong
Kong and Shanghai Bank, when it was established in 1864, and it
was represented on its Board in its earlier days.
Gilman's failed, however, to heed the warning that there was a
growing preference for Indian and Ceylon teas in Britain, and, heavily
indebted to its London agent Ashton & Company, it came close to
bankruptcy. Gilmans had to abandon its Shanghai and Hankow branches
in the 1880s. But, with the huge demand for joss sticks in Southern
China, the agency for the Australian Sandalwood Company helped
it to recover. Gilmans was taken over by Duncan Paterson of Perth.
Western Australia, in 1917, and converted into a private limited
company incorporated in Hong Kong. It suffered, however, during
the depression in the 1930s, although the backing of the Hong Kong
and Shanghai Bank helped it to expand and prosper especially up to
the Japanese invasion in 1941.

My father joined Gilman & Co. Ltd. in 1955, after replying to an advertisement in the UK.  He started as Assistant Manager in the Refrigeration and Airconditioning Department, moved to Manager and then became a Director of the Company.  Gilmans had many fingers in the pie.  They were located in Alexandra House and then moved to Princess Building.  There were many departments, all important in the growth of Hong Kong.  These included Import and Export (export  of goods such as toys and plastics and import which was  very important to we children as it included our Rowntrees Chocolates and such from the UK!), Shipping, Insurance, Gilman Motors (Roots Group Rolls Royce) and yes there was a lovely bachelor pad above the Gilman Motors main office in Wanchai), and of course Refrigeration and Airconditioning.  Their music fantastic stereo sound department was operated under the name of Moutries and it was there I got the first Beatles Album.  Gilmans was taken over by the Inchape group in the late 60s.  End of an era.      

It was my father who started the scooter idea and developed the catch phrase.  Great to see the photograph.

Was your father Chuck Sloan?

Yes Gilmans supplied 9 Rolls Royce's to the Kadoories for the Peninsula Hotel.  My father was a Director of the Company at the time and arranged the sale.

Ah yes Humphrey Hubble and his lovely wife Marianne.

My mother was the manageress of the Gloucester Arcade Showroom.  They sold airconditioners and refrigerators, mainly Philco.  The company were the agent in Hong Kong for Girard Perregeaux.