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Holland-China Trading Company colleagues, Hong Kong, ca. 1948

Submitted by Charles in Shanghai on Sat, 2021-02-06 15:10

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]. <Read more ...>

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

1948

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Holland-China Trading Company: Guangzhou (Canton) office, 1918

Submitted by Charles in Shanghai on Fri, 2019-06-14 14:53

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.

Twenty years before Charles started, in 1918, a photo album was made of the Hong Kong office and office staff. This photo shows the Guangzhou office, Canton at the time. <Read more ...>