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Company joined Dairy Farm and became known as the Dairy Farm, Ice and Cold Storage Company Limited, following the merging of the food sections of Lane Crawford and Dairy Farm.
Because records were lost little is known of the company's history between 1920 and 1942. The directors who were not killed fighting the Japanese in 1941, however, did manage to hold a minuted board meeting, on June 1st, 1942, in Stanley prison camp. They later held a joint meeting with the directors of Lane Crawford's when it was suggested the two firms should co-operate after hostilities ceased.
This idea materialised in 1960 with limited success. In 1972, Hong Kong Land acquired Dairy Farm in the first contested takeover bid in Hong Kong. The old building on Lower Albert Road, used by the Dairy Farm Ice and Cold Storage Company Limited until 1978, now houses the Foreign Correspondents' Club and the Fringe Club. In the late 20th century milk is tankered into Hong Kong mainly from China.
Watson's
Another of the few firms that is as old as Hong Kong itself is A.S. Watson's. It is connected with the Canton Dispensary which operated from 1828 to 1858. The Hong Kong Dispensary was opened in a matshed at Possession Point by Doctors (Peter) F.H. Young, a naval surgeon, and Alexander Anderson. The latter became the first Colonial Surgeon of Hong Kong. Doctor John Morrison, son of Doctor Robert Morrison who founded the Canton Dispensary with Doctor Livingstone, was also involved. In July 1841, a bad typhoon destroyed the Dispensary's matshed at Possession Point as well as other structures in Hong Kong.
The main purpose of Di Yeuk Fong (†) (big medicine shop as it was then called) was as a dispensary for soldiers and sailors. On 1st January 1843 it moved to Captain Morgan's Bazaar, and the same year a Doctor Samuel Marjoribanks, a surgeon, joined as a partner. In 1845 the dispensary moved to permanent premises, in Queen's Road, and Doctor James Hume Young (a relative of F.H. Young) became manager.
The first member of the Watson family to go East was Thomas