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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. 




















                                                         

 

I have been writing - honest! Summer into Autumn 2026

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5th October 2026. At last returning to this neglected website - neglected, I suppose, because much of my time since last March has been spent 'head down', poring over War Diaries, Regimental Chronicles and old newspapers. From these sources chapters of Answering their Country's Call - Hong Kong Police in the Great War are emerging, but it's a slow process. 

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.... but first - on Wednesday 7th October, Hong Kong historian DAVID BELLIS is giving one of his excellent talks here in the UK - in Cheltenham. It's at 3pm in the centre of town - all the information is here. I'm travelling there by train to support David and to catch up with  him and Grace - do join us (sorry for the late notice). 

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Now back to what I was saying .... ​Rather easier has been work on a small book project, Police Reserves in Hong Kong, 1914-19. For this topic, the bulk of the material comes from the newspapers of the day, who published 'Police Reserve Orders' two or three times a week. These give much interesting information on the background, organisation and daily work on this large voluntary force. Elsewhere in the papers pages are reports concerning crimes the Reserves brought to court, as well as sporting and social events this varied group of men (and one woman) initiated. All against the background of the huge war, for the most part thousands of miles away, but which was claiming a steady stream of men out from Hong Kong to fight in the trenches. 

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As I mention in my latest blog post, membership of the Western Front Association has been hugely helpful, not least because it has given me the opportunity to 'chat over tea' - or sometimes quiz and consult - those with much longer experience of Great War studies than I. Even with the support of my co-author, Steve Verralls, writing is a lonely and mostly silent job, and a bit of real-world interaction is a great motivator. Speaking of motivators ... my next trip to Hong Kong is around the corner, so I better get on with that writing ....  

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Btw, look out for the next issue of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, which will include my article on 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.​

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

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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. ​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

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