Who do you recognise in these photos? | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Who do you recognise in these photos?

We've got a good selection of group photos here on Gwulo, but many of the faces remain unnamed. Here's a recent example from Barbara Harding (née Landau), showing her with form 3A at Maryknoll Convent School in 1963-4:

Maryknoll Sisters School, form 3A, 1963-64

 

Barbara can spot herself at 2i, Tina Payne at 1b and Rita dos Remedios at 3c, but says though she recognises the other girls "the names have gone..." Please can you identify any of the other people in this photo, or forward it to anyone else who might be able to help?

 

Zoom!

You may be wondering how you'll recognise any of those faces at such a small size. It'd be much easier if we could see a larger view:

Zoom

 

Fortunately the Gwulo website has a Zoom feature, that lets you zoom in to see a photo's details. If you haven't used it before, please take a look at this short tutorial video to see how the zoom feature works.

 

Here are some of the other group photos we have that I'm hoping we can add some names to. We'll start with ...

School photos

School photos are the most common type of group photo we see. Here's another group of students at the Maryknoll Convent School, though a much earlier photo taken around 1937. (As well as names of faces, we're also interested to confirm the location of this photo, as it was taken around the time the school was changing premises.)

Maryknoll-C1937- Gathering of Primary School Classmates

 

Another school photo from the 1930s is this 1933 shot of the Prefects at the Central British School in Kowloon:

CBS Prefects 1933 Mr Nightingale

 

Then there's a much larger photo showing the whole school in 1939, after they'd moved to their present site.

1939 Central British School staff & students

 

Here's yet another photo of that school from 1949. By that time the school had changed its name to King George V school, often shortened to "KGV".

1949 KGV class photo

 

We also have photos from schools on Hong Kong island, like this 1938 photo of the Peak School:

1938 Peak School staff & students

 

These pupils from Wah Yan College in Wanchai:

Wah Yan College

 

And this group out at Quarry Bay:

QUARRY BAY SCHOOL c1953 - School Group

 

Photos taken around WW2

Another cluster of group photos were taken around the war years. These two show the HKVDC Corps Signals in 1939 and 1941. Many of the people in these two photos have already been identified, but there are still a few that are waiting to be recognised:

Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (Signals) Christmas photo 1939

 

1941 HKVDC Corps Signals at Fanling

 

Here are the Nursing Detachment of the Hong Kong Volunteers in 1941:

Nursing Detachment, Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, 1941

 

And this one from the end of the war shows a group of children among the internees at Stanley Camp. We've only identified five so far, so this is another one I hope we can add more names to.

Children at Stanley Camp

 

And plenty more...

Apart from these groups, there are many more from different occasions. Some remain a mystery - this c.1930 photo of a group at the Jockey Club doesn't have any names so far:

Group photo at Jockey Club c.1930

 

This 1950 photo has six people identified already. We also know that the names of the other four ladies are Doreen Walker, Damaris Smith, E I Rubin, and Dorothy Nelson, but we don't know which name goes with which person. Can you recognise any of them?

Kamp for Kids 1950

 

Another photo from 1950 shows a group of marine engineering apprentices at the Hong Kong & Whampoa Docks main office building in Hung Hom. Most are known, but still a few remain unidentified.

Hong Kong & Whampoa Docks

 

To see more group photos from the 1910s through to the 1960s, please click here for the full list of group photos here on Gwulo . If you see anyone you think you might recognise, please click on the photo to see what we know about it already, follow the instructions for how to zoom in to take a closer look, then finally leave a comment if you can add anything to its story.

 

Can you add any more group photos?

If you have any group photos you can share, we'll enjoy seeing them. Here's how to upload a photo to this website. As you upload the photo, please jot down any names you already know in the "Notes" area, and we'll see what other names we can add.

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