Andreas WOHLTERS (aka Andrew) [????-????]
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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
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:
- Solomon Bard's Voices from the past
- Jason Wordie's Streets: Exploring Kowloon
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:
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
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