Cyril Warnes was the third and youngest child of Charles and Elizabeth Warnes. He was a great-grandson of John Olson snr. His mother died in 1917 and there is no current record of what happened to his father after 1914. Whether Charles was deceased or working in another country, the Olson family looked after his three children initially. Cyril is listed as attending DBS in 1918. From around 1920, he attended the same English boarding school as John Olson jnr's sons and lived with them in Chiswick until he emigrated to Canada. <Read more ...>
Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos):
2013
I've just dug out this photo of the Rate Book page for a part of Queen's Road in 1883-84 that I must have overlooked when querying the renumbering of Queen's Road and the location of the National Hotel/Inn/Tavern between the 1860s and 1880s. This page shows alternative numbers for eleven of the properties with even numbers all under I.L. 5 Sec. A (not I.L. 95 A as before). So the last two properties, nos. 200 and 200A, which are the Boarding House and the licensed National Hotel respectively, become nos. 222 and 224. <Read more ...>
Elizabeth Warnes was the second daughter of John Olson snr. and half sister to Hannah Warren. Her mother was Ching Ah-Fung. Her other siblings were John Olson jnr., Charles W. Olson and Ellen Melcher née Olson. She married Charles Aspinell Warnes at St John's Cathedral in 1905. Their children were Iris, Marjorie and Cyril. Iris's and Marjorie's descendants now live in Australia. They lost touch with their brother, Cyril, who is thought to have emigrated to Canada. Elizabeth is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Happy Valley near her parents. <Read more ...>
I wonder if any 1880s/1890s photos of Gough Street Steps exist. Being quite ignorant of Hong Kong’s geography, I don’t know if they connect with Queen’s Road Central. If I’ve understood this entry in the 1885-86 Rate Book correctly, they seem to have been located next to The National Hotel, 242 Queen's Road Central, where my grandmother, Hannah Olson (later Warren) was born in 1880. <Read more ...>
Iris was the eldest child of Charles and Elizabeth Warnes (née Olson) and grandchild of John Olson snr. Iris, Marjorie and Cyril Warnes were the half-cousins of my father, Reg Warren. <Read more ...>
Louis Kirchmann (1840-1891) born in Eckernfoerde near Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein, was one of a group of tough early tavern keepers, who had Chinese wives. Kirchmann held the licence for The Land We Live In from 1871 until his death in 1891. He and the Swede, John Olson, licence holder of the National Hotel (1866-1885), were close neighbours in Ladder Street Terrace living in nos. 1 and 4 respectively. Kirchmann’s countryman, C.F.W. <Read more ...>
Henry Ching has alerted me to the enquiry about Ng Akew. During the previous discussion about the Kew family I had consulted him about an entry for Ng A Kew in the 1888-89 Victoria Rate Book. I was looking into the history of my Swedish great-grandfather, John Olson, recorded on the same page and wondered if Ng A Kew was a deceased member of the Kew family, subsequently neighbours to mine (Olsons and Warrens) in Caine Road. <Read more ...>
I wonder if anyone has any 1890s photos or postcards of Morrison Hill Road. 34 Morrison Hill Road is the address on the birth certificate of my grandparents', Charles and Hannah Warren's first child, Albert, born in December 1898. This was very likely rented for them by Hannah's father, John Olson snr, although I haven't verified that from the Rate Books. Their next two children were born at 1 Ladder Street Terrace, which he owned. More of Ladder Street Terrace later.
