1897 Hong Kong | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

1897 Hong Kong

Thank you to Janet Hayes for these photos taken in Hong Kong in 1897 (click any photo to see a larger copy and more information):

Procession to the thanksgiving service
Procession to the thanksgiving service

 

Queen's Road Central, Native Decorations
Queen's Road Central, Native Decorations

 

Review of the troops, Happy Valley
Review of the troops, Happy Valley

 

Kowloon, looking West
Kowloon, looking West

 

The City of Victoria, 1897
The City of Victoria, 1897

 

The Wong-Nei-Cheong Valley and Race Course
The Wong-Nei-Cheong Valley and Race Course

 

Fountain erected by John Dent, Esq.
Fountain erected by John Dent, Esq.

 

Murray Battery
Murray Battery

 

Victoria Peak and Signal Station (1825 ft.)
Victoria Peak and Signal Station (1,825 feet.)

 

The Grand Stand
The Grand Stand

 

The Man-of-War anchorage
The Man-of-War anchorage

 

The Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company's premises
The Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company's premises

 

The Praya Reclamation

The Praya Reclamation

 

St. John's Cathedral
St. John's Cathedral

 

Queen's Road Central, European Decorations
Queen's Road Central, European Decorations

 


 

The photos originally belonged to Janet's mother. Janet writes:

When I spoke to my mother via Skype the other day, I asked her where they got the album.  Apparently my dad found it in a small bookshop in Brighton when they were there on home leave many, many years ago.  The last time that my dad was in England was in 1961, when they dropped me off in boarding school.  Mum wasn't sure if that was when he found the book or a prior home leave.

I've seen other copies of these photos in a visit to the UK's National Archive. They come from an album entitled "Sixty Diamond Jubilee Pictures of Hongkong" (UKNA ref: CO 1069-450). The photos were taken by R C Hurley, and the album was published to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. I've used the captions from that album as the captions to the photos above.

Janet's family have been very generous in sharing their photos and memories with us. Janet's mother is Mabel Large (nee Redwood), and you can read her wartime experiences at http://gwulo.com/node/9569. Then Janet's aunt is Barbara Anslow (nee Redwood), who has written about her childhood in Hong Kong the 1920s (http://gwulo.com/node/17419), and given us the contents of the diary she kept through internment at Stanley Camp in WW2 (http://gwulo.com/node/9710).

Do you have any old photos of Hong Kong you can share with us? It's easy to upload them to the website, just click: http://gwulo.com/atom/add/image

Regards, David