MILITARY
A BY
(Contd.)
but the Adjutant, who was in front with a few men, immediately charged, and the guns were taken and the gunners bayonetted.
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659
"While the 59th were fighting their way to the left, the French were also engaged with the enemy to the right of the East gate, and the Blue Jackets and Marines to the right of them, the ground being disputed inch by inch by the Chinese. Many were killed and wounded in this attack, and the Navy have to regret the loss of one of their best officers, Capt. Bate, of the Actaeon, who was killed at the advance on the walls. A number of Blue Jackets were now advancing to the northward, and a shout soon told us they had succeeded in taking Gough Fort on the heights behind Canton. The city was now in our power, and at half past eight o'clock on Tuesday morning, the 29th of December the great stronghold of Southern China was manned by British troops.'
The report goes on to give the number of forces engaged and casualties suffered.
The 59th Regiment had contributed 400 men to the campaign, and their losses were only about five per cent in killed and wounded - some twenty casualties.
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July
In the course of writing a brief history of the association of the 2nd East Lancashire Regiment with the early days of Hong Kong, when it was known as the 59th, mention was made of the appalling mortality from sickness which prevailed among the troops in the first few years of the Colony's existence. In yesterday's article, quoting the comments of Fortune written in 1847, it was shown that the loss of life among the military was the chief topic of the time and it must have continued so for some years. Eventually, unable to stem malaria in those pre-Ross days, the troops were evacuated from the more unhealthy parts of the island - Aberdeen, Stanley, Saiwan barracks, and West Point (Saiyingpun), and concentrated in the centre of the city, where they are for the most part to-day. Even when Kowloon was first garrisoned, in the early Sixties, the records show that the sickness rate and mortality were high. The question of where the many fatalities were buried arises now, when we know of only a few burial grounds, and these with comparatively few graves. This point is raised by a correspondent, who writes me as follows:
"Along with many others, I am intensely interested in your "Old Hong Kong series. There is, however, a point which I think you might clear up. You have told us from time to time about the dreadful climatic conditions prevailing in Hong Kong of the early days and of the many people who must have died as a result. We now know that malaria (unknown as such then) must have carried off many population, civilian as well as military. Where were all these people buried?
"When the island of Hong Kong was first occupied you have told us that the military occupied such spots as Stanley, Aberdeen, Saiying pun and Saiwan. We know that troops who died were buried in situ. We also know that a very small Protestant Cemetery existed at St. Francis Yard, Wanchai, prior to the opening of the present Wongneichong Cemetery. At what spots then were buried those who died at Saiwan, Aberdeen and Saiyingpun? Transport being difficult in those days, it is improbable that the dead from those places were interred either at St. Francis Yard or latterly at Wongneichong. Unless old burial places can be discovered, I am beginning to suspect that, particularly in the Saiyingpun district, these have been built over".
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