What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• I'm a regular visitor to the hkmaps.hk website to explore their historic maps of Hong Kong, and see it has just had a major upgrade. I asked the website's founder Tymon Mellor for some of the highlights of the new site, and he replied:
  • can now search every building address and lot number
  • more aerial photos including the wartime images
  • improved 1924 aerial image for the urban areas
  • 3D imagery based on an older digital terrain model
     
• Ken Salmon is giving a talk in Hong Kong on 10 November, based on his father's wartime experiences: Surviving the Lisbon Maru: The story of Japan's ship from hell, told by a survivor
   
• 2026 Gwulo meet up lunch in Hong Kong on 18 November - please leave a comment on that page to let Annelise know if you'd like to join. (Annelise has been organising these for several years, to give Gwulo's contributors and readers a chance to meet up.)
   
• Behind the scenes I'm working on an upgrade to the Gwulo website, to keep up to date with the latest version of the software it runs on. If there are any features you'd like to see added to the site, this is a good time to see what's possible - please leave a comment below with the details of what you have in mind.
   
• Extract from The Charge of the Rice Brigade, written in Shamshuipo POW Camp:
  • No fags, no beer,
    Beri-beri, Diarrhoea,
    Sore throat, Pyorrhoea,
    You can catch anything here.
    Good old Five Thousand.
     
• The earliest mention of 'Hong Kong', on a 16th-century map.
   
• More Heavy Draw-off Fire Hydrant info found in public records
   
• Re-siting of postboxes in the late 1940s to make them safer
   
• Recent news in the wartime diaries:
  • 1942
    • 25 Oct 1942. The American Air Force makes its first bombing raid over Hong Kong.
  • 1943
    • 25 Oct 1943. It’s the first night of “La Czigane”, a popular show performed at the Shamshuipo POW Camp.
       
    • 29 Oct 1943. Thirty three people are executed on Stanley Beach soon after 2 p.m. All have been involved in one way or another with resistance activities organised by the British Army Aid Group.
  • 1945
    • 27 Oct 1945. The repatriation ship carrying two of our diarists, Barbara Anslow (née Redwood) and R. E. Jones, arrives in Liverpool.
       
• Cheung Chau Concert (August 1936)
   
• Readers ask:
  • Nicky in the UK is looking for any relatives of their great grandmother, Maria Augusta FERRAS (née MARQUES DA SILVA) [1878-1956] in Hong Kong / Macau
     

Places

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• Thank you for the donations of historic material I've received over the last few months, including old Hong Kong newsletters, articles, slides, photos, and a massive scrapbook from the 1960s. The clocks are about to change here in Wales, which brings the long, dark evenings. I plan to use the extra indoors time to start sharing this new material on Gwulo.
   
• New books:
  • Allan Bartley writes about Francis Woodley "Mike" Kendall in his book Beyond Operation Oblivion - A Canadian Spy Before, During, and After the Fall of Hong Kong, 1941. Readers may recognise Kendall from his appearances in the wartime diaries as the leader of Z Force, and his part in the Christmas Day escape with Admiral Chan Chak. But as the book review shows, there's much more to his story.
     
  • Joseph Paul Terry's new memoir covers Hong Kong’s military, aviation, and social history in the mid-1960s, with a detailed, ground-level account of RAF operations, athletics, and local life across Kowloon and the New Territories. RÁIMÉISING: From East Cork to the Far East—and Home Again (A Ten-Year Adventure)
     
• For readers in ...
  • UK
    • The Friends of East Asia are hosting a talk by Philip Cheung in London on the use of the Chinese writing script, on 31 Oct: How to live with a non-phonetic writing script: China and her neighbours from ancient to modern times.
       
  • US
    • I can send book orders to the US again. With the changing tariffs, deliveries to the US have been on hold for a long time, but now the Royal Mail is accepting parcels to the US again. The full set of my books (Volumes 1 -5) costs £96.90 (appx US$130), including shipping to a US address and the 7.5% tariff because the books are printed in China. Please get in touch if you'd like to order a set.
       
• Thank you to everyone who came along to my recent talks in Cheltenham and Exeter. I can recommend both venues if you want somewhere that is affordable and has good audio and video: The Chapel in Cheltenham, and the Rougemont Room in Exeter Library.

  • 

     

  • 

• Recent news in the wartime diaries:
  • 1942
    • 18 Oct 1942. The bankers T. J. J. Fenwick and J. A. D. Morrison begin their escape from Hong Kong, aided by the BAAG and communist guerillas.
  • 1943
    • 19 Oct 1943. Men and women involved in resistance to the Japanese go on trial at Stanley Prison. The trial doesn’t include any meaningful defence, as the outcomes had already been decided. Many of the defendants will be sentenced to death. 
  • 1944
    • 16 Oct 1944. US bombers conduct a large raid on Hong Kong. They attack the Kowloon Docks at Hung Hom, but many bombs miss the target and fall on the dockworkers houses nearby. Many civilians are killed or injured.
       
    • 17 Oct 1944. John Charter explains the ‘Canteen’ system in Stanley Camp, which was a formal system allowing internees to buy food and other necessities – if they had money.
• Readers ask:
  • Was Betty Kendall a Clandestine Operative?
     
  • Do 'Arriving Passengers' lists exists for flights into Hong Kong in the late 1930s? My mother and two very young siblings flew to Hong Kong in late 1938 or 1939. They were to join my father who had started an engineer's job with Imperial Airways. 
     
  • Can anyone shed any information on the Malaria Unit number 7 of Mess 24?
     
  • Looking to contact family members of architects active in Hong Kong c.1850-1950.
     

Places

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• For readers in Hong Kong, I see the University Hall on Pokfulam are celebrating their 70th Anniversary with an Open Day on Sunday 4 Oct 2026, 11am - 8pm: "No prior registration is required — simply drop by to explore, reconnect, and commemorate seven decades of history."
  • I went on a tour of the Hall some years back, and enjoyed hearing about its history - some parts of the building date back as far as the 1860s.
     
  • Other interesting locations nearby include Bethanie, Pokfulam Village, and the walk to / from the Peak via Pokfulam Reservoir.
     
• We've just finished transcribing Leo Landau's Prisoner Of War diary. Thank you to all the volunteers who have helped, and special thanks to Brian McDouall, morbach, and wingcli2015, who have handled the bulk of the work. 
  • Read the diary pages from 1944-45
     
• If you have friends in South West England that have a connection to Hong Kong, please could you let them know about the talks I'm giving next week in Cheltenham (Wed 7 Oct) and Exeter (Sat 10 Oct).
  • A bonus for the Cheltenham talk: historian and author Patricia O'Sullivan will join us, so if you have any questions about the history of Hong Kong policing & prisons, or you have copies of her books you'd like signed, please bring them with you!
     
  • After the talks we've got the rooms for another hour, so there will be plenty of time to enjoy chatting and sharing memories of Hong Kong with the other guests.
     
• Performances of the play 'Our Town' in Hong Kong in the 1960s-80s
   
• Peter Liu remembers growing up in Big Wave Bay village in the 1950s:

  • 

     

• Video of Morris A. Cohen in 1960
   
• Recent news in the wartime diaries:
  • 1942
    • 27 Sep 1942. Just over 1800 POWs from Hong Kong start their journey to Japan, where they expect they’ll be put to work as manual labour. They notice the name of the ship they are boarding is the Lisbon Maru. Conditions in the holds are terrible.
       
    • 1 Oct 1942. American submarine Grouper fires torpedoes at the Japanese ship Lisbon Maru, unaware that over 1800 allied POWs are on board. A torpedo strikes the ship, which starts taking on water. The Japanese crew and soldiers are removed to other ships, but they keep the POWs locked in the holds, only lowering a hand-pump to the POWs who must use it to slow down the rising waters.
       
    • 2 Oct 1942. The POWs in the holds of the Lisbon Maru realise the ship is going to sink and decide to break free. Japanese ships nearby shoot and kill many of the men. Some men are rescued by local fishermen, and eventually the Japanese ships also start picking up men from the sea, but over 800 of the POWs who boarded the Lisbon Maru did not live to reach Japan.
  • 1943
    • 23 Sep 1943 : The second repatriation ship leaves Hong Kong. The Teia Maru sets sail with mostly Canadian repatriates, but also several from the USA and Latin America. [CORRECTION: Greg Leck notes that only the group who boarded at Hong Kong were 'mostly Canadian repatriates'. He says that the vast majority of the repatriates on the ship were from the United States, from camps throughout the Far East. Thanks to Greg for the correction.]
  • 1945
    • 2 Oct 1945. Mabel Redwood wakes up in Colombo, believing her fiancee is far away in Hong Kong. In fact he has also arrived in Colombo on board a different ship. There is a reunion, a wedding, and by that evening Mabel is a married woman with a new husband and a new name, Mabel Large.
• Readers ask:
  • Jo asks for information about The Swiss Inn on Gloucester Rd and The Mandarin Hotel, in the early 1970s when their father Ming-jai / Abel worked there as a chef
     
  • Can anyone translate the Chinese notes on the back of this photo?
     
  • Where was this photograph taken:

    • 

Places

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• Thank you to everyone who attended my recent talks in York and Edinburgh. The audience was a good mix of long-term followers of Gwulo, and people who have a connection to Hong Kong but are new to the site. It was a pleasure to meet you all.
  
  After our visit to the North East, next month we're heading in the opposite direction, to give talks in Cheltenham and Exeter. Please use the following links for booking and details, and I look forward to seeing you there.
  • Wed. 7 Oct, Gwulo talk in Cheltenham
     
  • Sat. 10 Oct, Gwulo talk in Exeter
• The project to put Leo Landau's Prisoner Of War diary online is going well. Volunteers have already processed the pages from 1942 and 1943, and are making good progress with 1944. If you'd like to help, please reply to this newsletter by email with DIARY in the subject line, and I'll send you the files for the next page in the queue.
  • Read the diary pages from 1941-43
     
  • See the steps required to help process a scanned page
     
• Recent news in the wartime diaries:
  • 1942
    • 25 Aug : The MS Gripsholm repatriation ship sails in to New York Harbour. It has been almost two months since the Americans left Japanese-occupied Hong Kong, but finally they are home.
       
    • 8 Sep : The Japanese release the Chinese members of the HKVDC from the Sham Shui Po POW camp. (Eric MacNider in Stanley Camp writes about it later in his diary on 17 Sep: ‘124 Chinese, Malay & Annamite HKVDC men released from P.O.W. camp by Japs.’)
       
  • 1945
    • 30 Aug : The Allied fleet sails into Victoria Harbour. Admiral Harcourt visits Stanley Internment Camp where he gives a short speech, and there is a flag-raising ceremony.
       
    • 11 Sep 1945 : The internees in Hong Kong and the POWs in Japan begin their long journey home.
       
    • 16 Sep : The Japanese officials in Hong Kong sign their surrender in a ceremony at Government House. In the evening, ships in the harbour gave a fireworks display in celebration.
• In the previous newsletter, gw introduced us to the scenes in Mum's "Hong Kong Color Slide Service" Collection, a set of colour slides of Hong Kong. Several of the slides started discussions to identify the scenes in more detail, and gw has posted an update with a summary of the findings.
   
• hongkonger has started mapping the old-fashioned granite marker stones you'll sometimes see when out hiking in the Hong Kong countryside: 
  • Village Boundary Stones
     
  • Direction Stones
     
• Photos of Comet Tanks in Hong Kong
   
• Droughts and water restrictions / rationing in Hong Kong
   
• All Gwulo's books are back in stock at Amazon. [Affiliate link] (A box of my books went missing en route to Amazon, but I've sent a replacement and this one arrived safely.)
   
• Jamie Carstairs introduces new resources from Bristol University:
  • The Historical Photographs of Hong Kong website is now live.
     
  • If Gwulo readers wish to see high res versions of all the marvellous Martin Funnell HK panoramics, you need to go to the new Special Collections' Preservica site (still being populated), via the long URL link at the bottom of the Online Archive Catalogue page for DM3108. Then click on the little blue 'folder' icon. The image loading is rather slow, but the zooming in is good. [David: Click here for a shortcut to the hi-res panoramas]
• One more mention of the York & Edinburgh talks - if you need venues for illustrated talks I can confidently recommend the Main Hall at Clements Hall in York:
  • 
• And The Studio at Augustine United Church in Edinburgh:
  • 
• Both had clear audio and screens that all the audience could see clearly, plus the staff were both helpful and knowledgeable, which made the setup very straightforward.
   
• While preparing for the Edinburgh talk I discovered not only did famous photographer John Thomson grow up in Edinburgh, but that his childhood home was just five minutes walk from our venue, at 6 Brighton Road. I went along to pay homage, and as you'll see in the photo below, there is a brass plaque on the wall commemorating him. It turns out that plaque is there because of the good work of Jamie Carstairs - he has written up how he tracked down Thomson's house and got the plaque installed.
  • 

     

• Readers ask:
  • 1980s-era Hilton Horizon magazines - is there any Hong Kong-based person or archive that would like to take these?
     
  • Looking for any information about late uncle George William Lythgoe, based at Room 1007, Man Yee Building, Des Voeux Road Central in the 1960s.
     
  • Is there a Chinnery Collection for viewing anywhere in HK?
     
  • When was the Peak Hotel Garage built?
     
  • Was the HSBC Tai O branch (the one next to the rope ferry steps) already open for business in the 1960s?
     
  • Where on The Peak was this taken:

    • 

  • Can anyone identify this house:

    • 

Places

This week's newsletter is a guest post by regular contributor GW:

Introduction

My Mum recently rediscovered a set of slides she’d bought in Hong Kong in about 1986. They’ve been digitized and are posted below in order of the reference codes printed on their frames with their titles. The accompanying comments aim to establish each slide’s “where” and “when”. Many of the “where’s” are obvious, but the “when’s” less so. Dates without a quoted source come from elsewhere on Gwulo.
 

The Slides

1. XB3, Rickshaws In The Street.

I guess tourists were the main buyers of slides like these, so a set would have to include a pic of that favourite Hong Kong stereotype, the rickshaw, even though they’d ceased being used as a form of transport well before the 1980’s. If I remember correctly, the only ones still around in the mid-80’s were parked outside the Star Ferry, Hong Kong side and, for a fee, were available for a short ride around the concourse area and a photo. 

This pic was taken on Connaught Road, Central. In the background, from right to left, are the 2nd GPO Building (1911-1976), Union/Swire House (completed 1962) and St. George’s Building (demolished 1966). That gives a preliminary date range for the photo of 1962 to 1966. 

The hoardings on the left are where Queen’s Building stood until replaced by the Mandarin Hotel. The Mandarins’ soft opening was on 1 September 1963, but it obviously wasn’t near completion when this photo was taken, meaning it was probably taken in 1962 or early 1963.
 

2. XB6, Des Voeux Road, Central.

It’s the junction of Des Voeux Road with Pedder Street left, Chater Road right, and was probably taken from the