Andreas WOHLTERS (aka Andrew) [????-????] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Andreas WOHLTERS (aka Andrew) [????-????]

Names
Given: 
Andreas
Family: 
Wohlters
Alias / nickname: 
Andrew
Sex: 
Male
Status: 
Deceased

Hi,

I`m trying to find information on Andrew Wohlters or his family, I`ve found him in the 1884 Jurors List where he was an assistant working for Blackhead and Co. I`ve also found him in the Carl Smith Collection where it says:-

Andrew Wohlters, British Hotel, Fire Brigade, 1876, 1879 - 1887

Does this mean he worked at the British Hotel ? With the fire brigade ?  I don`t think he was born in the UK. There are no records that I can find for him there, family gossip says they came from either South Africa or Germany/Austria.

His son John Henry Wohlters was born in Hong Kong in 1886 and eventually went to the UK.

What kind of business was Blackhead and Co ?

Any help or pointers in the right direction would be gratefully received.

Regards

Tracey

Re: Andrew Wohlters.

Hi Tracey,

Andrew Wohlters was Assistant Foreman of the Volunteer Fire Brigade during the Great Fire of 1878. This brigade was operated by the Hongkong Fire Insurance Co., which was owned by Jardine Matheson. Andrew was promoted to Foreman in October 1880 (Hong Kong Daily Press, Oct 14 1880, p.2, col.2). The Volunteer Brigade was disbanded in 1889.

regards, Adam

Mrs. Wohlters

If you check the Ladies' Directories, you'll also find a Mrs. Wohlters mentioned in the lists for 1885 and 1887, but not in 1890 or 1891.

Any idea when they left Hong Kong?

Regards, David

PS Please join in and help us typing up these lists if you can.

Andreas

Further to my message above - the 1878 Jury List has an Andreas Wohlters down as the proprietor of the British Inn. In those days it wasn't uncommon in Hong Kong for people with foreign names to Anglicize them, so this is probably the same man, and if so he would then have been part-timing with the volunteer fire brigade while operating the British Inn.

Yes-and I remember reading

Yes-and I remember reading once that the "Blackhead" company was actually Schwartzkopf Ltd. Can anyone confirm that? 

Schwarzkopf > Blackhead

Yes, the founder was a Mr F. Schwarzkopf. A direct translation to English gave "F. Blackhead", the name that was used in Hong Kong. (Though elsewhere in China the company still used the name "F. Schwarzkopf & Co.")

The company was a ship chandler, supplying provisions to the many ships that visited Hong Kong harbour.

It was a German-owned company, so like all German posessions in Hong Kong it was confiscated & wound up by the British authorities in WW1.

The fact that A. Wohlters worked there suggests that he was German-speaking.

More about Blackhead & Co. in:

More Wohlters

From my Fire notes, I see that Wohlters also publicly disowned his wife in 1876 and had a son in 1879.

Great grandson of Andrew

Tracey was looking for the family of Andrew Wohlters.

I am one of his great grandsons thru' John Henry.

For further info Tracey can contact me via:

mw1649@ANTISPAMlantic.net

Try: Forgotten Souls-A Social History of the Hong Kong Cemetery

Try Google books. It looks like he was a freemason, and owner of the Lord Nelson Tavern, and is buried in HK cemetery

Forgotten Souls: A Social History of the Hong Kong Cemetery

 By Patricia Lim

http://books.google.com/books?id=iaZMzPuLAggC&lpg=PA490&dq=%22Wohlters%2...

Newspaper cuttings on A Wohlters

 

The wreck of the Agamemnon

The Straits Times, 25 April 1874, Page 4

http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/straitstimes18740425.2.14.5.aspx

 

More masonic info:

Weekly Sun, 4 January 1913, Page 11

HONGKONG THIRTY YEARS AGO.

http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/weeklysun19130104.2.45.aspx