15HKG Scout Group Photo c1946 (post war)

This is a very clear photo. Are any of the people's names known?

Hi David,

I have been going through old school magazine and found the same photo in the 1947 issue.  But the captions only read Fr. rector and some of the Community at the presenting of a banner to the Wah Yan Boy Scouts by Mr Kwok Chan.

They did not have class photos for that issue so cross checking is needed to find out who they are later.

From the list there were 13 Jesuit Fathers:

Very Rev. E. Bourke, S.., Rector

Rev. A. Cooney, S.J. Vice-REctor

Rev. R. W. Gallaher, S.J., Head Master

Rev. G.H. Casey, S.J., Asst. Prefert of Studies.

Rev. F. Cronin, S.J., Scouts Supervisor

Rev..C. Daly, S.J., Prefect of Morals

Rev. T. Fitzgerald, S.J,

Rev. J. Howatson, S.J., Sports-Master

Rev. D. Lawler, S.J.

Rev. H. O'Brien, S.J,

Rev. T. Sheridan, S.J.

Rev. E. Sullivan, S.J,

Rev J. A. Turner, S.J.

T

Hi There,

Found a portrait of the scout master identifying him as Mr R. T. C. Yue.

wy49_mr_yue.jpg, by tngan

T

Greetings!  Raimondi College is at 2 Robinson Road. Sixty years ago I wrote a Form 1 application test in their fairly new 8-storey building, and saw probably the same retaining wall in this 1946 photo. One 2017 Google street photo shows I think the same wall, its location marker near the end of Glenealy. I would love to match the stone patterns but unfortunately they are covered by a large mural. Regards, Peter

(January 2, 2020 Correction:  For the correct name and location of the buildings in this photo, please read comments below.)  

Raimondi College (1958), by OldTimer

The 1946 photo was probably taken outside the Catholic Cathedral as opposed to the old campus of Wah Yan College Hong Kong.  I do not recognise that wall in the background from memory of my days at St. Joan of Arc Primary School which took over the campus at Robinson Rd.

The other photo was not Remondi College, but St. Joseph's Primary School, Wan Chai, below Queend's Rd East.  Also, there is often a disperception that Rimondi was built on the former location of Wah Yan College / St. Joan of Arc School.  It was built besides.

Lawrence

Thank you Lawrence for the feedback.  I am now confused so please correct if my memory is faulty.

I wrote the Raimondi test in one of the classrooms on the 6th floor in the building on the right side of the 1958 photo.  I believe it was Raimondi's new building.  As for the lower building on the left, I saw it too, but did not know anything about it until recently I read in Gwulo that it was a primary school under different name.  Regards,   Peter

Hi Peter,

I believe this screen capture from Google Earth should show the correct location.  St. Joseph's had built an extension wing on Queen's Road East side thus it looks a bit different.  Otherwise the older buildings are the same.

Your photo was taken on the private road up Wah Yan College close to the foot bridge as shown below.

qre_st.joseph_wy.jpg, by tngan

T

Hi tngan, the 1958 black-and-white photo I posted was from the internet its source unknown.

Your Google Earth photo (when was it taken?) is most helpful in that the view from the foot bridge would match well with the two buildings in the 1958 photo. However, I cannot match the area’s road layout likely due to their realignments over time. I can not locate the soccer field in modern photos.

Still on your Google Earth photo, the short building is gone, and the other building with white roof and perpendicular to the road “appears” to be the same one in the 1958 photo, but its outside appearance differs from that in current photos. As for the third building located right next to the road, it didn’t exist when I wrote the Raimondi test. Because the spot was much lower than the road, retaining walls below the road have been built prior, and it was along and below the road there that I think the 1946 Scout Group Photo might have been taken.

I found out that some location markers for street photos are not accurate and this includes the one mentioned in my previous post. Thanks again, and all the Best in 2020. Regards, Peter

Hi Peter,

The football field is sort of new.  It used to be a water works depot back in the days before the whole site was re-purposed to be a public park, maybe in the 1990's.  I could not recall now, but should be able to look it up somewhere in the Government's website or Wiki.  The Wiki link is only in Chinese though.  The summary could be translated as:

灣仔公園原址是昔日摩理臣山的一部份，1910年代被夷平後，水務署於該處設立工場。1990年代初，這個地方被改建為公園。

Wanchai Park was originally part of Morrision Hill.  When the hill was gone in 1910, Water Supply Department started a workshop\depot there until 1990, where the site was re-purposed as a public park.

The screen capture from Google Earth has a date\time stamp of 2018.  If you have Google Earth you may check it out yourself.  Google Earth is available to mobile devices too these days.

If you use Google Map to locate Wan Chai Park, there are photos from the football pitch towards St. Joseph's..

T

Many thanks tngan for your research.  It was "likely 2 Robinson" and the stone retaining walls  in the group photo that caught my interest.  I just found out Raimondi College and Primary are located some distance apart.  Yes, there are several photos in your link and the first that shows up is the best - a special feeling seeing the place at ground level again.  Some mail we receive in our lifetime are memorable, and in my case the acceptance letter from Raimondi College is one of them.  I did not attend due to the time needed to travel from Sham Shui Po.  Regards,   Peter

P.S. All these years, I thought I wrote my Raimondi entrance test at 2 Robinson Road which is the current site of Raimondi College.  Thanks to tngan and Lawrence, the "test" building was, and still is, next to Wan Chai Park, and its current occupant is St. Joseph's Primary School on Queen's Road East.  I wonder why I travelled to this building unless it was the originally intended Raimondi site, or they borrowed the site to host the test.

Dear OldTimer,

Raimondi College was built on a site in front of the Catholic Cathedral at Caine Rd and Arbuthnot Rd, near it's gate where a bellfry was located before the War. Since I was at St Joan of Arc Primary School for a couple of years, I have the impression that there was a lowrise old school building on the site before;and the name Wah Nam college or school comes to mind, but I am not sure.  When highrise Raimondi was built (in the 1958?), it rose up to way above Robinson Rd, and No.2 Robinson Road became its main entrance, with a lower entrance just above Arbuthnot Rd near the entrance of the Cathedral. An extra classroom annex seemed to have been added to it later as the St. Joseph's cluster of buildings made way for the Bishop Lei Guest House as well as the Robinson Heights, which were built on the site of the school pemises of St. Jospeh;s Coolege, Wah Yan College (HK) and St. Joan of Arc Primary School at 4-8 Robinson Rd.  When WYCHK consolidated at Robinson Road in 1921, it was No.2 Robinson Rd.  The street numbers were soon changed as the highrise was built next to the classroom block.  There was no Raimondi College until 1958.

I believe you would have taken your public exams at Raimondi College.  Raimondi has a few rooftop playgrounds at different levels of the vertical highrise buildings.

On the other hand, St. Joseph's Primary School was built in 1968 at the present site just below Queen's Road East, Wah Chai, opposite Wah Yan College on the hill.  The entrance is from the steps at the southern end of Wood Road.  It was, as previously as pointed out, the site of the PWD Water Works workshop, half of which became a park.  I was still at WYCHK and watched SJPS completed and started up.  Should have focused on my lessons instead!  One of my younger brothers went to SJPS Wan Chai.

Lawrence

Dear Lawrence and tngan:  I enjoyed reading your detailed discussion on the origin of Raimondi College and history of its surroundings. While my connection to Raimondi was confined to writing its entrance test, it was an important day since I was in search of a secondary school while in my final days at Good Hope Primary.  I place that day in either late 1958 which was not likely because I don’t remember wearing heavy clothes, more likely in 1959 shortly before the 1958-59 school year ended.

I don’t remember how I managed to walk from the ferry pier to the “test” building – an impressive accomplishment now looking back. I remember walking on narrow, winding, and inclining streets (some sidewalk with sharp rise), with large old mansions shortly before reaching the building.

The eight-level building in the 1958 photo, the lower building straight ahead, the puddles of water in their yard after a recent rain, and the rising embankment towards the road are unforgettable. The building was fairly new. The site is shown as open field in David’s 1957 Map.

I wrote the test on Level 6. Many thanks to you folks for pointing me to Queen’s Road East. Although it became St Joseph’s Primary years later, I believe, given its layout, it was built as a school from the beginning but initially under a different name. From reading your comments, I got the impression that the same organization/people were connected to both this and the Robinson Road site, and since the Raimondi building was still under construction and/or all their classrooms in session, they sent the applicants to Queen’s Road East to write the test.

Regards, Peter

Queen's Road East, by Philk

Here is a 1963 aerial shot of the site that would become St Joseph's College Primary School. More info here