Essie Jean GREENBURG [????-1942] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Essie Jean GREENBURG [????-1942]

Primary tabs

Submitted by David on Sat, 2011-09-03 21:25
Names
Given: 
Essie Jean
Family: 
Greenburg
Sex: 
Female
Status: 
Deceased
Death
Date: 
1942-03-12

Notes from the Chardhaven Hotel thread:

Annelise:

Advert in The Straits Times, 24 October 1939, Page 2

For Sale:

Residental Hotel 44 rooms, beautifully funrished, 20 bath rooms, etc., licensed to sell intoxicating liquors, situated in the best part of Kowloon, showing handsome profits, price £3,000 selling on account of ill health.  Apply to Mrs. Greenburg, proprietress, Chardhaven Hotel, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

80skid:

Good time to sell given the Japanese invasion a year away; though possibly fears of war prompted the offer in the first place. I wonder what happened to Mrs Greenburg and her handsome profits

Adam:

Mrs Greenburg is also mentioned in the April 1940 China Mail piece, mentioned above, so obviously the place wasn't snapped up too quickly.

Tony Banham has this entry in his list of civilian internees during WW2:

Greenburg, Essie [25] 51, Mrs. Room 303, at Stanley Int. Camp ISH UCWD 12.3.43

I wonder if she's the same person?

Essie G Greenberg

Essie G Greenberg, died at Stanley  Mar. 12, 1943 - age 51.   Her husband, Walter William Greenburg is on the 1939 Jurors list as a Foreman, Taikoo dockyard & Engineering Co., living "on premises"

(http://www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/civilians/html/g_database_40.htm)

Submitted by annelisec on Thu, 2010-10-28 20:25.

re: Essie Greenberg

Confusingly - there is a gravestone in Stanley which lists an Essie J Greenberg, who died March 12 aged 46. That's the same date but a year earlier than Tony Banham's list and also her age is different.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IwGDyZ6FcVk/TKg6hpEoFYI/AAAAAAAABJQ/K4p2qMoLR08/s1600/100_0792.JPG

Looks like either commonwealth graves commission has the details wrong or the headstone is wrong http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3169501

Submitted by 80sKid on Fri, 2010-10-29 10:33.

re: Essie Greenberg

80skid, well spotted!

I asked on the Stanley Camp discussion group, and received two replies. First from Mrs Barbara Anslow, who has a remarkable memory:

I was working in the Tweed Bay Hospital, Stanley, during internment, and remember that Mrs. Greenberg died within the first few months, ie. early in 1942.  I didnt' know her personally though.

And another from Tony Banham:

Note that the CWGC also spells her name 'Greenburg'. Although I missed this error, I found around 200 others when going through the entire CWGC records for HK. Many included mistakes of this sort, where one number was wrong. In the most dramatic case (which I believe was unique), a '4' in the year had been replaced by a '5', making the death a decade late.

Though I'm not sure if the gravestone shows the correct spelling or not, as it's not hard to imagine there being no written record of her name available at the time.

Regards, David

Submitted by David on Mon, 2010-11-01 17:55.

It's the same Mrs Greenburg

People applying for a Liquor Licence on 7th November 1939 include a Mrs. Essie Jean Greenburg, applying for a 'Hotel Keeper's Adjunct Licence' for the Chardhaven Hotel, 23-25 Nathan Road. She had already held a licence to sell liquor in Hong Kong for two years.

So it's the same lady mentioned as trying to sell the hotel on grounds of ill-health. It's likely the same health problems contributed to her death at Stanley Camp in 1942.

Regards, David

Submitted by David on Mon, 2010-11-01 18:16.
Tags: 
WW2: Interned at Stanley Camp
  • Log in or register to post comments

Comments

Submitted by David on Sat, 2011-09-03 21:40.

Here's the front of Mrs Greenburg's gravestone, which stands in Stanley Cemetery:

E. J. Greenburg gravestone - front

I happened to look at its back, and found that the stone was originally one of the square stones used to mark lot boundaries - this one was Rural Building Lot 318:

E. J. Greenburg gravestone - back

It must have been impossible to get fresh granite into the Stanley internment camp, so I guess they re-cycled any Lot marker stones they could find around the camp grounds.

Regards, David

Submitted by annelisec on Sat, 2011-09-03 23:01.

No joy on the Land Register search for RBL 318.

Submitted by moddsey on Sun, 2011-09-04 11:46.

1929 P.W.D Annual Report

" St Stephen's Boys College comprise the College, Hostel, 2 Bungalows, Servants Quarters, Laundry, Garage, Chauffeurs Quarters, and are situated on R.B.L.'s 314, 318, 319, 320, 321 and 322, Stanley."

Submitted by David on Mon, 2011-09-05 21:11.

Great, so that confirms it was a stone from within the camp boundary they'd re-purposed.

I've posted a question to the Stanley camp discussion, asking if anyone has more information about the stone-working capabilities within the camp.

Regards, David