Cyril Gaby represents a long-standing tranche of the Hong Kong community - that is of seamen who would acquire a Chinese mistress in the city and set her up in an apartment. It was a convenient arrangement for men who came and went. In his autobiography, Gaby has described how he acquired his mistress through the time honoured "viewing" procedure at a tea shop in Ladder Street and recorded the price negotiated with the madam, which in his case in the early 1930s was a down payment of $500 and the purchase of a $2000 apartment in Wanchai. <Read more ...>
This is the address listed for Mrs C.A. Warnes from 1908 in the Ladies Directory and therefore the second family home of Charles and Elizabeth Warnes after Charles left the HK & Kowloon Wharf & Godown Co. Ltd. and joined Lane Crawford. No other person in the Ladies Directory other than Elizabeth has a Wong Nei-Chong Road address in 1908. Elizabeth was second daughter of my great-grandfather John Olson who described himself as "Farm Keeper" on the birth certificates of his first son and my grandmother, Hannah Warren in 1879 and 1880. <Read more ...>
Ethel Olson appears in photographs with my 14 year old father, Reggie Warren, both in Singapore and in Hong Kong. She was married to my father's uncle, Charles Olson, and seems to have taken him under her wing to some extent after his own father, Charles Warren died. Although the family myth is of a complete rift between the Warrens and Olsons after the death of Charles Warren in 1923, a note from Ethel still exists congratulating Cicely Warren, wife of my uncle, Leslie Warren, on the birth of their daughter in 1927. <Read more ...>
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 ...>
The Ladies Directory for 1908 gives 43 Wong Nai-Chong Road as the address for Mrs C. A. Warnes, that is Elizabeth Warnes, née Olson. In 1907 her address was given as 6 Ashley Road, Kowloon, (an address that often crops up in both the Jurors Lists and the Ladies Directories) but with the birth of a second child, Marjorie, perhaps the family needed a bigger house. They were possibly the first of the younger generation of Olsons to move to Happy Valley. I don’t know if the Warnes remained at this address until Elizabeth’s death from cancer in 1917. <Read more ...>
6 Ashley Road, Kowloon is the address given in the 1907 Ladies Directory for Mrs C.A. Warnes, wife of Charles Aspinell Warnes and formerly Elizabeth Olson, half sister of my grandmother, Hannah Warren. I'm a little bit hesitant about this address and what it consists of, as it is given several times in the Jurors Lists as the address for various people employed by the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown company. Warnes is given as a Sorter in the Dock Co. at this address in 1907. <Read more ...>
