THE OLD PROTESTANT CEMETERY IN MACAO
A lecture delivered on 7 May, 1962
LINDSAY RIDE, C.B.E., E.D., D.M., LL.D.*
There are worse ways of occupying leisure than tours on foot through noteworthy cemeteries — EDMUND BLUNDEN in Cricket Country.
Macao is of fundamental interest to all of us here tonight because, in the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries, as well as being a Portuguese base, it was the Far Eastern home of those who were unconsciously but surely laying the foundations of the community which was to become known as the Colony of Hong Kong. It was also the main gateway through which flowed the influence that the west was exerting on the whole of China; and of all its non-Portuguese foreign residents responsible for this influence, the most valuable cross-section accessible to us today is the group of 162 members of many nations who lie buried in its Old Protestant Cemetery. Their personal histories, read in and between the lines carved on their weathering memorials, give us the most accurate picture it is possible to paint today of the parent community they represent; deciphering these lines and filling in their gaps, has been the spare-time hobby of my wife and myself now for over seven years; it has given us interest in members of divers nationalities and professions, and has introduced us to the fascinating lives of scores of people who lived in earlier times. It has directed our searching into many corners of the globe, and earned us a host of interesting friends and correspondents the world over.†
In the time at my disposal this evening it is impossible to describe in any detail any one of the life histories which it took individuals decades to weave and us years to unravel, but if I can give you even a general understanding of their community and their home, of their lives and their times, I shall be content.
* Sir Lindsay Ride is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong. †The results of these researches will be published shortly by the Hong Kong University Press in a volume provisionally entitled Macao's Old Protestant Cemetery.
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