225
OBITUARY
Ian Diamond, M.B.E., F.I.M., M.A., Hon. Fellow, HKBRAS (1924-2004)
Our former Hon. Secretary and Vice-President Ian Diamond, died recently at his home in Adelaide, aged 80. He was also an Hon. Fellow of our Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, an honour he greatly prized.
Ian was educated at St. Peter's College, Adelaide, and at the University of Adelaide (M.A.). After working as an archivist in Australia, he went to the then British Colony of Fiji where he served from 1958, establishing and running the Central Archives of Fiji and the Western Pacific High Commission until he transferred to Hong Kong in 1971 to set up the Public Records Office there.
Ian's service to the RAS was noteworthy. He was our Hon. Secretary 1974-78, Councillor 1978-82, and Vice-President 1983-85, when he retired from the service of the Hong Kong Government. He then returned to his native Australia, with his wife Ishbel, another fine contributor to the good of Hong Kong during their stay in the former Colony.
For much of Ian's time on the RAS Council, it used to meet in his office in the Public Records Office, then located on the first floor of the Murray Road Multi-storey Car Park at Lambeth Walk. This was but a stone's throw from the appropriately named Bull and Bear, which served as our meeting place when Ian was on overseas leave and his office temporarily unavailable to us.
Ian was determined to record the remaining old buildings in Hong Kong, before the developers moved in. Together, Tony Rydings (our Hon. Librarian), Rev. Carl Smith, Dr. Solomon Bard, and Ian completed a photographic survey of fast disappearing parts of the old urban area. Ian did the researching, surveying, and note-taking, and Tony was the main photographer, with timely help from the Photographic Group of the South China Athletic Association.
The recorded areas included the historic Western District of Hong Kong Island and (later) Yaumatei in Kowloon. Out of the over 2,000