top of page

Hongkong - 1841 to 1941
(give or take a few years..)
A unique place at a time now slipped from memory.
 
Stories of the people who lived and worked here - British, Chinese, Irish, Portuguese ....
Bringing to life some of the social history of Hongkong's colonial past through the tales and documents they left behind. 




















                                                         

 

A new year and new books - January 2026 

​

Those who know me in real life will be aware that the time from summer 2024 onwards was challenging and unexpected, but not without its blessings. But as 2025 ends I have been able to return to researching and writing on my favourite subject - Hong Kong in past years. This has been very much helped by a great month out there in November (ok, in today's Hong Kong, sadly I haven't mastered the art of time travel yet). The weather had just cooled down from a fierce long summer and aside from one or two rogue days, was very pleasant. The first event I attended was an in-person seminar, hosted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong Law Faculty, and given by Dr Christopher Munn on his latest book Penalties of Empire - Capital Trials in Colonial Hong Kong (HKU Press, 2025). Chris's work is ever insightful and rigorous, and this talk, on the juries involved in capital trials, was no different. Chris has been an invaluable friend and mentor to me for over twelve years, encouraging me to keep my flights of historic imaginings under control and pointing out the many ways what I might be working on connects with wider HK history. It was especially good to enjoy a good jaw with him a couple of days later, and very kind of him to give me a copy of Penalities of Empire. It being November, Remembrance Day was celebrated in a variety of settings, and Saturday 8th found me with an invitation to attend the Act of Remembrance of the Masonic District Grand Lodge at Zetland Hall. This fitting ceremony was succeeded by a visit to the Hong Kong Cemetery in Happy Valley and a tour of the Masonic graves that have recently been renovated. Unfortunately, this was one of the days when the weather had decided not to play ball, and was rather taxing for many of the participants, still, of course, in their formal suits. But with Steve Verralls, who had engineered the invitation for me, we spotted additional graves connected with our current police stories.  â€‹

​

Which brings me onto the current book - well, the main book - explanation of that hint later. Answering their Country's Call - Hong Kong Police in the Great War is now, after a long, slow gestation, really taking shape. Steve - Stephen Verralls - and I are co-authoring this, he bringing his excellent research skills and knowledge of military history and I doing the writing thereof. We had plenty of time to work on this in person, which is always so much more productive than any WhatsApp correspondence or even video call. We particularly worked on an the story of Ernest Bloor, a HKP born not a mile from my Hertfordshire home, who was a POW in Germany in 1917-8, and whose police career included one quite spectacular event. Of course, my time in HK couldn't end without my own trip to where it all began for me, and I had time with both Inspector Mortimer O'Sullivan and Sergeant Henry Goscombe Clarke in the Happy Valley cemeteries. It's now over 15 years since my HK adventure began, and it came about because of them. Without them, my life now would be so boring! Rest in peace, dear men.

​

I'm just getting back to this much-neglected website, so will update it with more stories, more on Ernest Bloor, more on other writing in the coming days. Thanks for reading and a happy and healthy 2026.                                                                          23rd December 2025

​

​

Answering their Country's Call - Hong Kong Police in the Great War

I've never been satisfied by the notion that 'nothing happened in Hong Kong during the First World War' - an answer I'd received more than once. And the subject is often covered by just a few paragraphs (at best) in the histories. For me, an obvious place to start was with the police who volunteered to return to Europe to fight. After all, of the Newmarket men, four of the Murphy family and my great-uncle, Maurice Kenneally, all went. Out of 175 men of the European force, 69 men went home between 1915-18, and about 20 men from other uniformed branches of the Civil Service (revenue officers, gaol guards etc). Of these, 15 died in action. The war experience of the whole group form the centre of Answering their Country's Call. However, Hong Kong couldn't lose 40% of its European police without some cover, and that - the Police Reserve - is the subject of two chapters. This was the largest and most active of any volunteer police force in the British Empire, and Hong Kong was justly proud to this multi-racial body, where the Chinese, Indian and Portuguese members achieved promotion to the Inspectorate years in advance of those in the regular force. â€‹The book opens with a picture of the place in 1914 and what life was like for these men, and concludes by following the careers of those who returned - and some of those careers were certainly exciting! 

 

Warder Walter John May †14.10.1914

Lance Sergeant Herbert G. Wakeford †17.5.1916

Constable Arthur Wesley Allchurch †1.7.1916

Constable Ernest George Painting †1.7.1916

Constable Harold Wilson †27.7.1916

Dockyard Police Constable Hugh Adair (Hully) †7.8.1916

Constable Peter Boyd Gardner †4.12.1916

Constable Ernest Frederick Drury †17.2.1917

Constable Robert Edwards †30.4.1917

Dockyard Police Constable Albert Brewer †17.7.1917

Constable Edward Charles Sillies †1.8.1917

Constable John Delahunty †9.10.1917

Wardmaster Charles David de Haney †3.5.1918

Lance Sergeant Frederick James Singleton †2.11.1918

Constable Albert Edmund Clarke †15.3.1919

bottom of page