A visit to Aladdin's Cave

Here are a few gems from a recent visit to Roy Delbyck's collection of ephemera.

Guide-books

Originally meant to be used and thrown away, these old tourist guides are now a valuable snapshot of old Hong Kong. Roy's 1957 copy of Hong Kong Guide includes this indexed map of the buildings in Central, always handy when we're trying to identify buildings in old photos.

Press photos

I always suffer a tinge of envy as I admire Roy's photos. He's been collecting old Press photos, like this set showing a group of American sailors visiting Hong Kong with the Seventh fleet. They're not dated, but one had this text on the back, suggesting it wasn't long after Hong Kong was liberated in 1945:

The U. S. Navy, which is helping China in evacuating Japanese military forces, also finds time to visit China's historic places.

Next is a 1948 photo showing Madame T V Soong, wife of the Governor of Kwangtung, walking with Hong Kong's governor, Sir Alexander Grantham, at the Happy Valley Racecourse:

And finally a 1962 view of "the control tower in Hong Kong's new airport terminal":

Letters

Here's an extract to make you feel better if you're flying to London this summer and dreading the long flight. In a letter dated 5th July, 1953, "Teddy" describes his return journey:

We left Heathrow on time on Sunday. We had dinner in Frankfurt having flown over the Goodwin Sands and Brussels. [...] Frankfurt was left behind after a beef dinner (& hock) and we flew over Rome in full moonlight. As we came into land it was easy to spot the Colosseum & also the mass ?unclear? St. Peters. It made us wish we could have stayed a while. Refreshments were served in Campini [sic.] airport before we once again took off for Damascus.

It wasn't long before I felt "at home" again, for having left Athens behind, we soon were over Palestine and Syria, & I recognised much of the area so familiar to me in 1942.

Mid-morning cofee in the shambles of Damascus air-port [...]. After an hour here in the fierce heat, we were once more flying East [...]. Lunch was served in the air, & we landed in my old stamping ground of Basra - in 116-degrees of heat accompanied by a searing wind.

I had looked forward to having a good wash etc here, since I used to use the Airport Hotel in Basra back in 1941 for this purpose. Imagine my horror to find this wonderful monument to Imperial Airways now the property of the Iraq authorities! The air conditioning was defunct, windows were cracked, the toilets fly-ridden [...]

Next stop Karachi, where we landed at midnight & due to engine trouble had to stay til 3:30am. Here we were given rooms & baths & refreshments on the BOAC hotel - British owned - & efficiency was the order of the day. [...]

Delhi & Calcutta were the two next stops. [...] From Calcutta we flew down the Burma coast to Akyab & then over the hills and plains to Rangoon. Here the monsoon was in full swing, & we were glad to get to our hotel where we lodged for the night. At about ten o'clock the rain cleared and I went out for a walk - into a dead city.

[...] When dawn came I was pleased to leave this dying city. After an early start we arrived in Bangkok at Don Muang airfield. What a change. Here was a gleaming white stone & glass edifice, spotlessly clean & cool. [...]

The wheel changed we flew round the China coast after crossing war-ridden Indo-China & got into the tail winds (deliberately) of the typhoon which reached Formosa yesterday. And so we let down into Hong Kong half an hour early at 5 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon.

Now your 12-hour flight to Heathrow doesn't seem so bad after all!

This extract came from a bundle of letters and photos that Roy bought recently. They were all sent by Teddy in the 1950s, dutifully writing home to his parents in the UK. Each letter was written on paper addressed "OFFICERS' MESS, ROYAL AIR FORCE KAI TAK", but he gave his title as "Capt. E. E. Kennington. R.A.C." (Royal Armoured Corps), so I'm not sure of his exact role here.

Thanks to Roy for sharing these with us. This is the briefest of glimpses, as the full collection now has over 10,000 items, grouped into these categories:

• The West in China Pre-1949
• The Chinese in the US - Citizens and Residents and Visiting Students, Athletes and Performers
• US Support of China’s Fight Against Japan in WW2 Before and After Pearl Harbor
• Shanghai 1930s and 1940s
• Hong Kong
• China Treaty Port Newspapers and Magazines
• Directories, Annuals and Almanacs
• Country and City Guides and Maps and Atlases
• Chinese Dictionaries and Grammar Books
• Customs and Trade
• Taiwan
• Japan’s Side of The Sino-Japanese Chinese Conflict

Roy is always interested to hear from researchers and fellow collectors, so please contact me if you'd like to be put in touch.

Regards, David