What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• Two Hong Kong history talks in London for your diaries:
  • 25 April 2026, David Bellis : 1880s – 1940s Hong Kong photos: 70 years of stories to tell
    • I'll show a new selection of photos that haven't appeared in any of my previous talks, and tell their stories. I hope to see you there!
  • 13 June 2026, Dr Patrick Hase : Villages and Market Towns in Hong Kong
    • Dr Hase has a vast knowledge of Hong Kong's history, and is an enjoyable speaker to listen to, so this will be well worth attending. (As an example, here's a recording of a talk he gave back in 2009 on Historical development of the Central District - apologies for my shaky camera at the start, it does settle down eventually!)
• Lt. Donald Kerr's thrilling WW2 account of being shot down over Kai Tak, hiding from the Japanese, then escaping into China has just started appearing in the '82 years ago' wartime diaries:
  • “Zero coming in at two o’clock!” – I picked out the jumble of excited confusion on the radio…
    
    The Japanese sweeps past my tight-turning leader and there he is for me – a little out of range according to the size of the gunsight circle, but I begin firing.  A long tangent of bright red sparks – tracers – curves out towards the enemy ship, which I notice is a “Tojo,” [Nakajima Ki-44] one of their later models… I can feel the powerful hammering of my six guns vibrating through the ship as I concentrate furiously on holding the right deflection and lead.  … just when he appears to spot my ship my stream of incendiary, armor piercing, and tracer bullets takes effect.  Chunks of silvery metal tear off his fuselage as little points of light show where the incendiaries are hitting.  His Plexiglas canopy blows off and a thick stream of dark smoke followed by bright flame comes from back of the engine.
    
    I stop firing and sharply reverse my turn.  I’m struck with the most uncomfortable feeling that I’m too alone and too far behind the other guys by now.  There are two P-40s up ahead, not far, but since they’re no doubt running all-out, it would take long minutes to catch up.  Down below and ahead were the B-25s and other P-40s.  I twisted in my seat for a quick survey behind – with a good idea of what I’d see.  I was right, they were there…Zeros – three of them diving down and obviously at me!
    
    I’d better get out of here quickly.  A P-40 can out-dive a Zero, I know from experience...I jammed throttle and pushed over into a rather steep dive.  A burst of smoky white tracers passed me and my confidence began to fade …The dive grew nearly vertical, the throttle handle shoved as never before as I slipped and skidded the plane to upset the aim of the pursuing Japanese.  CRACK!  A smoking bullet drilled through the side of my Plexiglas canopy and shattered some glass in the instrument panel.  Ugh, that was close!  It left a smell of chemical smoke.  I looked over my left shoulder to see one Japanese pilot really gaining on me, his guns blinking like little red flashlights…
    
    Bang!  Oh, oh, a solid hit, 20 mm stuff.  There was a hot blast on the back of my left leg and a new smell of smoke, a grey haze in the cockpit, a thicker smoke and suddenly a bright billowing gust of flame reaching everywhere…I have a clear recollection of seeing the skin on my wrist puff up and crackle in the fire as I frantically jerked at the emergency canopy release.  I remember nothing more until I was tumbling over and over in the strangely silent air…
    
    Clear blue sky, a white chute canopy, a hot sun – all as peaceful as could be.  No sensation of falling – just a mild wind that seemed to be blowing from below.  Well, nothing amiss in the sky half of my world.  I looked down. . .  Great day!!!  Directly underneath, absolutely between my two shoes was Kai-Tek Airdrome – the largest Japanese base in the Hong Kong area, and even now partly hidden by pillars of black smoke from our bombs…I resigned myself to the present position and predicament, and then had a sudden inspiration.  These parachutes could be steered and that was the thing to do, NOW! Continue reading the Journal of Lt. Donald W. Kerr...
• Several questions that have been repeated recently:
  • Do you live in Poole?
    (People have noticed the Poole address at the bottom of each newsletter.) No, Poole is just the address of the company I rent a PO Box from. I live in Pembrokeshire, SW Wales.
     
  • I can't access the Gwulo website. My browser shows "1.2.3.4 has been banned".
    If that happens to you, please email me a copy of the error message - it will show a different number that is unique to you - then I can remove the ban. (The ban is added automatically by anti-spam tools on the website, but occasionally they make a mistake and block a valid user.)
     
  • Why isn't there anything about XYZ in the newsletters?
    If a topic you're interested in never seems to get mentioned in the newsletter, then:
     - First use the search box at top-right on the Gwulo website to see if we already have something about it.
     - Next post new questions and information about your topic to the website, so they can be mentioned in a future newsletter.
     
  • I live in the UK, how can I order your books?
    Please send me an email to let me know which books you'd like to order, whether you'd like me to sign them, and your mailing address. I'll send you my bank account details, then once you've made the transfer I'll mail you the books. The books cost £17 each, with the full set of five available for the cost of four = £68. Shipping to a UK address is free of charge.
     
• Readers ask for help with:
  • Does this photo show the site of the New York Theatre or the Cathay Theatre?
     
  • Looking for information about 8, St Francis Street, Wanchai
     
  • Where was "Chuck pye-wan Bay"?
     

  • I asked for help understanding the markings written on WW2 reconnaissance photos of Hong Kong. I've received explanations for most of them, but two are still unclear. Please leave a comment if you know what they mean.

    

Update on last week's video, investigating a photo that shows early Brownies, Cubs, and Scouts in Hong Kong.

The video ended with more guesses than facts:

• Photo was taken between 1921 and 1935
• Probably taken in Hong Kong
• May be a photo of the Garrison School
• Man wearing glasses may be Capt. A. E. Watts

I went searching for more information about Captain Watts, and had a lucky break when viewing a result in the China Mail for 1925-09-19, as on the front page of the newspaper was this photo:

Despite the poor quality, it's clearly the same scene as the photo I was investigating, shown below. The newspaper copy confirms it is a photo of the Garrison School in Hong Kong, taken on 11 Sep 1925, and with Captain A E Watts sitting in the centre.

Can you identify any of the scouts in these 1950s photos?

Places

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• Please do you have any photos of Scouts, Cubs, or Brownies, taken in Hong Kong in the 1910s-1930s? I am trying to put an accurate date on a photo I've just bought for a future video, and one clue is the children's uniforms.  The style of those uniforms changed several times in the early years, so by comparing them with other photos where we know the date, I'm hoping to work out when this new photo was taken. (Here are the photos we already have on Gwulo of Cub Scouts / Scouts / Brownies.)
   
• Should Hong Kong have an aviation museum?
   
• The Sai On / Tak Shing / Tung Shan ferry 
   
• Several updates for my recent video: 1945 flight over wartime Hong Kong
  • Correction: No evidence that Union Church was bombed
     
  • We've created new Place pages for several sites related to the video:
    • Military buildings off Chung Hom Kok Road
       
    • Huts(?) on Shek O Road [????- ]
       
    • WW2 Outdoor Kitchen near Aberdeen Lower Reservoir [????-????]
       
    • Wartime Huts at South Bay [????-????]
       
    • Wartime Stoves below Brick Hill [????-????]
       
    • Wartime Stoves behind Deep Water Bay [????-????]
       
    • Wartime Stoves, Hatton Road [????-????]
       
• Readers ask for help with:
  • What were the likely routes to travel from London to Hong Kong in 1920?
     
  • Looking for a photograph of the former Tsuen Wan District Police Station building on Castle Peak Road, Tsuen Wan, N.T. (as it was c.1980's if possible) to accompany an illustrated career memoir including time served there.
     
  • Looking for help to correct metadata in the records for the Frank Fischbeck Collection of photos
     
  • What or who is / was the origin of the restaurant name “Gripps”? 
     
  • Collector wants to buy pre-1920 maps of HK & surrounding region
     
  • Looking for any information about the building at the left edge of this photo:

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Places

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

General

• An 'alphabetical list of the Proprietors of lands and buildings in the Town of Hongkong' from 1842.
   
• Illustration of the Shek Kip Mei fire, and after.
   
• To any Hong Kong based students reading (including secondary school / undergraduate / postgraduate students), there's a new history prize on offer for the best 4-8,000 word essay on any aspect of Hong Kong's history.
   
• Footsteps of Rev. Mackay in Hong Kong, at the beginning and end of his missionary life (1871-1901).
   
• Aberdeen photos on Uwants run to over 500 pages!
   
• Readers ask for help with:
  • Looking for photos of Utility poles, especially power lines, in old photos of Hong Kong.
     
  • Looking for any photos of the civil hangar's operational facilities and equipment at the pre-war Kai Tak airfield.
     
  • Looking for the passenger manifest of the last Voyage of Empress of France in 1929, from Hong Kong to Canada .
     
  • Can you identify any of the people in these photos?

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Places