New on Gwulo: 2018, week 40

A summary of what's new and updated on Gwulo:

People

Looking for information about:

• Mohamed AHSAN [1907-1979] Arrived HK c.1920. Studied in Ellis Kadoorie School and Queen's College. Worked in GPO, and member of Police Reserve. Worked with BAAG during Japanese occupation, tortured and imprisoned by Japanese, but lived to testify against them in the war crimes trials after liberation.
• Arthur George PILE [????-????] (worked in the Hong Kong dockyards in the 1920s & 30s), wife Florence Edith Entwhistle PILE (née BOND) [1876-1969], daughter Dorothy Margaret Georgina WHEELER (née PILE) [1904-1934], and sons Christopher Stanley PILE [c.1909-????] (HK Police) and Thomas Madison PILE [c.1906-????] (Assistant Hospital Supervisor). Both sons were interned in Stanley Camp.
• Giovanni Aurely [1880-1975], connected with the earliest demonstrations of powered flight in Asia.
• Neilage Sharp BROWN [????-????], worked at Butterfield & Swire
• Stanley Camp internees:
  • Charles Reginald ROWCLIFFE [1900-????]
  • Sidney John HERRETT [1900-????]
  • Brabazon Henry Collis HALLOWES [1884-????]
  • J COOPER [????-????]
  • John BARNET [1900-????]
  • Professor Walter BROWN [c.1886-1957]
  • Harry Thomas SMITH [1903-????]
  • James Downie THOMSON [1891-????] (his son James Milne THOMSON died in the fighting in December 1941)

Memories of:

• Gingles
• Audrey Joan CASEY (née BARTON) [1925-2018]

Places

• Tantallon Terrace Hung Hom Docks [????-????]
• Castle Peak Hotel [1949-????]
• Old Senior Staff Quarters at Dairy Farm, Pok Fu Lam [1887- ]
• Where was Gingles' Sunnybrook Farm, near Sheung Shui, and what's there now?
• Anyone have info about the Tai Pak amusement park, near Kennedy Town?
• Yuen Long Cinema (元朗戲院) [????- ]
• 12 Belleview Drive 基廬 [c.1980- ]
• Phil added On Lok Tsuen [????-????], "famous for its many elegant mansions and often used as a film location", eg
  • Fanling Babies Home [????-1992]
  • Li Garden (李園) [????- ]
• Lucina [1945- ]
• Where were the 'Commercial Bank Buildings, Queens Road' in 1868?
• Last week's mystery building on Coombe Road is identified as 523 The Peak, Coombe Road [c.1923-c.1941]
• The Lookout [c.1935- ]

Gwulo book news

​Volume 1 is now available to buy on Amazon.com. I've limited it to customers in the US, as for other countries the shipping fee is too expensive. (Amazon currently uses fixed shipping costs for small suppliers like me: approximately USD4 per book for US orders, and USD17 for all other countries!)

That new Amazon page is looking rather empty, so if are an Amazon customer, and you've read Volume 1, please could you help me by leaving a short review there? (You don't need to have bought the book from Amazon, or live in the US, to add a review.)

Volume 2 is keeping me busy at the moment - it's always surprising how much work it takes to get from nearly there to just right. A line I heard when working on software projects sums it up: The first 90% of the work takes the first 90% of the time, and the last 10% of the work takes the other 90% of the time.

Still, we're making good progress. I'm working on the photos, and getting them to look their best. Ross is hammering my wayward grammar and punctuation into shape, and Lilly is turning my hand-crafted Word document into a professional book layout. I plan to post up drafts of the cover layout for the new volume in the next couple of weeks.

Police

Three recent posts have a police theme:

• Karl English is hoping to hear from anyone who knew his father Senior Superintendent JJ (Jack) English CID/K, or his mother Kim. Karl is researching the the circumstances concerning his father's suicide in June 1976.
• Childhood memories of living at the old Police Station in Sham Shui Po.
• Guy Shirra introduced his book, The Accidental Prawn: "Interesting Times" - Policing 20th Century Hong Kong and other stories

Other

• John has posted a notice that was sent to Jardine Matheson Employees on the Peak following flooding that cut Peak Road in 1966. eg
  • Now that the emergency is over, all members of the Staff should report for work daily. If walking up and down is impracticable for any reason, application should he made to the Staff Manager for bachelor accommodation at mid-level or in a hotel.
• The 1927 Jurors List is now online for viewing. Thank you to all the volunteers who have helped type it up. If you can help type a page, the 1928 Jurors List is waiting for you!
• The first jet aircraft arrived in Hong Kong in 1949 - well, it was supposed to but overshot and made a forced landing on a beach in southern China instead. IDJ has posted several interesting photos and reports of the incident.
• Barbara Anslow's local newspaper wrote up a good interview with her about her time in Stanley Camp, and her book Tin Hats and Rice.

Photos

1930s Cheung Chau House, by Moddsey

1930s Nagasaki Joe Restaurant Calling Card, by Moddsey

1925 Flooding - Happy Valley, by Eternal1966

Quarry Bay Gas Holder 1980's, by Klaus

1960 Unknown streetscene, by Eternal1966

1960 RAF Little Sai Wan, by Eternal1966

HIGH-Resolution aerial photo of Cheung Chau - 25 Nov 1924, by Hans Wergin

Old Dairy Farm Cowshed in Pok Fu Lam, near current day Consort Rise., by scottp

Senior Staff Quarters at the old Dairy Farm, Pok Fu Lam, by scottp

1900s Queen's Building, by eternal1966e

Click to see all recently added photos.