Everything tagged "monochrome" | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Everything tagged "monochrome"

Hotz collection: Hong Kong, Town of Victoria, ca. 1870

Charles Gesner van der Voort's (1916-1991) employer, Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC), was founded by several people, including Albert Hotz, through Hotz, s'Jacob & Co (Albertus Paulus Hermanus Hotz, born in Rotterdam in 1855, died in Italy in 1930).

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1880

Portrait Lily & Johnny Lafleur, ca. 1951

Charles Gesner van der Voort (1916-1991) worked for Holland-China Trading Company in Shanghai, from 1939 to 1943.

Franciscus Hubertus Joseph Alphonsus Lafleur (1890 - 1946) was a colleague at the Hong Kong office and lived in Hong Kong with his wife Lily (1907-1982), son Ah Tong and daughter Ah Kan (Mary). The Japanese interned the family in Stanley Camp, Hong Kong. Unfortunately, Franciscus (probably people called him Frans) died soon after WWII.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1951

Holland-China Trading Company: Hong Kong Government Gazette trade registration, 1917

Charles Gesner van der Voort had started his career in Rotterdam, at Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC). In 1938, he went to Shanghai for the firm. The Japanese interned him, and most other Dutch nationals, from 1943-45. In camp, he met his wife Nancy and they married after the war. After a leave in The Netherlands, they returned to the Orient, where Charles continued to work for HCHC in Hong Kong.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1917

Hotz s'Jacob & Co.: 1900 trade mark registration- man, woman and stork

Charles Gesner van der Voort had started his career in Rotterdam, at Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC). In 1938, he went to Shanghai for the firm. The Japanese interned him, and most other Dutch nationals, from 1943-45. In camp, he met his wife Nancy and they married after the war. After a leave in The Netherlands, they returned to the Orient, where Charles continued to work for HCHC in Hong Kong.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1900

Philip Harding Klimanek: 1950 retirement Holland-China Trading Company, Hong Kong

Philip Harding Klimanek (1883-1965) was born in the Czech Republic, at the time his place of birth was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In ca. 1905 he started to work for Holland-China Trading Company, in Hong Kong.

This photo shows his retirement party. Charles Gesner van der Voort's wife Nancy can be seen first row, third from the right. Philip Harding Klimanek is standing in front, on the right.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1950

Philip Harding Klimanek: 1948 portrait

Philip Harding Klimanek (1883-1965) was born in the Czech Republic, at the time his place of birth was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In ca. 1905 he started to work for Holland-China Trading Company, in Hong Kong.

In 1939, when Charles Gesner van der Voort arrived in Shanghai to work for the company, he was Charles' superior. In a letter home he wrote: "Played chess with Klimanek in the French Club" [translation Pieter Lommerse, the French Club was Le Cercle Sportif Français, a fashionable place to be in the 1930s and it still exists today].

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1948

Wesselingh family archive: dredger "Portugal" in Hong Kong, Causeway Bay Reclamation, 1953

Jan Wesselingh was an employee of Netherlands Harbour Works Co. from Amsterdam, working in Guangzhou (Canton) before WWII and in Hong Kong after WWII. I was brought in contact with two of his sons by Theodor A.R. Strauss, 1988-1993 secretary of Nederlandse Reünisten Vereniging China (NRCV, Dutch Reunists Association China), of which Jan Wesselingh was a member.

Can you recognise the background? There is a typical pagoda on the left.

More narrative will follow.

Courtesy Wesselingh family archives

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1953

Holland China Syndikaat, founding document, 1896, p. 1/3

Charles Gesner van der Voort had started his career in Rotterdam, at Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC). In 1938, he went to Shanghai for the firm. The Japanese interned him, and most other Dutch nationals, from 1943-45. In camp, he met his wife Nancy and they married after the war. After a leave in The Netherlands, they returned to the Orient, where Charles continued to work for HCHC in Hong Kong.

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 
1896

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