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Dr. Gregory Paul Jordan. The practice became Drs. Anderson and Partners. At the time of the First World War Dr Grove changed his name to Frederick Pierce Grove and served with the British Army. In spite of his former German sounding name he must have been a British citizen. He died in May 1929 in Hong Kong aged fifty-five (Katherine Maddock, Hong Kong Practice, Drs. Anderson and Partners, Hong Kong 1984, Drs. Anderson and Partners, p. 28, 64)
Taverns, Boarding Houses, Cafes and Hotels
German merchants and professionals met at the Club Germania for eating, drinking and entertainment. At the other end of the social spectrum the crews of German ships in the harbour frequented the taverns and boarding houses for the same purpose.
Some of the taverns had names which would immediately attract their attention and, hopefully, then patronage, as they found their land-legs on the walk from the wharf to the tavern area on Queen's Road West.
The German Tavern had the longest history. It is first mentioned in 1858, a year before the German Club was organised. It closed in 1910. Its first proprietor Andrew Rudigan was in charge for a very short time. He died in 1858, aged twenty-six. He was succeeded by Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Petersen, who held the licence for spirits for the tavern intermittently until his death in 1896, aged sixty-four. After his death his widow May was in charge for a brief period. She was his second wife and was Chinese. Three of their children were baptised in the Chinese To Tsai Church. His first wife was an English woman, a native of Bristol. She died in 1878, aged twenty-eight, from the effect of taking cajiput oil (DP 5 Jan 1878). In 1883, Mr. Peterson was charged by the Inspector of Nuisances for keeping two pigs in his kitchen without a licence. The defendant pleaded that he had only kept them there for a few days and had had them slaughtered as soon as he could arrange it (DP 20 Feb. 1883). There may have been pigs in the kitchen, but soon after the tavern opened there had been preaching in the back room. We have already noted the reference of the Rev Philip Winnes to the services held there.
Petersen for some years was associated with another German, Peter Henry Schmidt, a licensed boarding house keeper who was in the business of recruiting crews for merchant vessels. In 1875 the licensing board