A champion boxer, a Royal Marine and the Gaol Matron

Well, not all in one story - but finally this week I've started on the 'Additional Characters' section, (under Insight) with Richard Morgan's account of the life of former Sherwood Forester and HK personality Henry 'Kid' Marriott, hero of the Gresson St. affray, whose final resting place was in Stanley Internment Camp cemetery. I've written on Patrick Francis Boulger, a quiet Irishman who had a long service in the HK Police after joining as a seconded Marine and had to face a piratical attack on his station in 1912.

Then I've come across a note I missed earlier, in a government report, about the new quarters for the women's gaol in Hongkong. Margaret Nolan was Matron of the Gaol - i.e. in charge of the women prisoners - from 1887 until the end of 1896. For most of that time they were confined in a roughly converted house in Wyndham Street, but at the end of October, 1896, Margaret would have overseen the move to part of the main Gaol, behind the Central Police Station. Here she had six separate cells, five associated cells and two penal cells. This space was reckoned to be 'somewhat limited' but far more satisfactory than that which they had occupied in the house.