Everything tagged "black"

Even though HCHC was taken over by Internatio in 1948, people kept referring to the company as Holland-China Trading Company. This group photo was taken for the occasion of senior manager Philip Harding Klimanek (front row, sixth from the left) leaving the company. Charles Gesner van der Voort can be found front row, first from the left, his wife Nancy third from the left. Phil Beekmeijer and his wife Ans are third row, first and second from the left.
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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.
 
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Charles Gesner van der Voort's friend Phil Beekmeijer lived in Hong Kong with his wife Ans Beekmeijer-Kroeze when this photo was taken. In this year, 1951, he had been awarded with the Dutch Bronze Cross, for his "very courageous and prudent acting" during the Battle of Arnhem, "in which he did not sleep for three days", his daughter Liesbeth adds. Proud of the honour of receiving the award, he wore the decoration, for the occasion of waving off friends for a 'big leave', which Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC) staff were entitled to after working abroad for four years. <Read more ...>

Charles Gesner van der Voort worked at Holland-China Trading Company in 1939. Twenty years earlier, Bob de Vries' father worked for HCHC in Hong Kong. This photo shows the Hong Kong office staff in 1926.

Original caption reads: "Hong Kong 1926 - - Staff of the newly formed Holland China Trading Co. Note the flag of the recently established Nationalist government." <Read more ...>