HONG KONG CADETS, 1862 - 1941
43
in academic performance, and a significant number excelled at sport. The fathers of the cadets were in most cases members of the older professions — law, medicine, and especially the church, although two, for example, were M.P.s.29 Few, if any, of the fathers were businessmen or shopkeepers, and none could be regarded as aristocratic. In sum, the typical cadet came from a solid, though not rich, upper middle-class family, went to a public school, but not to the most prestigious, and then went up to one of the older universities, where he read classics or history and was noted for his application to study and interest in healthy recreation. The bounder, the aesthete, the hearty, and the rake, were not represented in the ranks of the cadets. The origins of the Scots were humbler; many had schoolmasters for fathers, whereas the Irish tended to come from the smaller landed families, from the parochial gentry rather than the squirearchy.
Two things should be noted about the curriculum vitae of the typical cadet. Firstly, it fitted him for the type of job he was expected to carry out as a colonial civil servant in Hong Kong – the need to apply himself with diligence and intelligence to a series of prosaic tasks, and to sustain interest in the minutiae of bureaucratic life; and secondly, the common social background and education of the cadets helped to create an esprit de corps, a class and caste feeling, and an intuitive understanding of other cadets, which helped maintain morale and discipline within a hierarchical service. Cadets, it may be surmised, understood one another without the need for excessive interpretation of motive.
Given this common background, training, and the fraternity of class, cadets came to the field with many shared assumptions about, and attitudes towards, the people they governed in the colonial territories. Robert Huessler, for example, argues that the attitude of British Colonial officials 'was not unlike that which they maintained from childhood towards the lesser orders at home. One ruled the people and protected them from local and foreign injustice. Otherwise one lived apart'.30 Perhaps a better analogy would be the model prefect at an English public school. The model prefect is expected to be fair, just, upright, dignified, and withal concerned about his charges. However, he is not likely to support ideas of equality and permissiveness; he must exercise authority.
HONG KONG CADETS, 1862 - 1941
43
in academic performance, and a significant number excelled at sport. The fathers of the cadets were in most cases members of the older professions — law, medicine, and especially the church, although two, for example, were M.P.s.29 Few, if any, of the fathers were businessmen or shopkeepers, and none could be regarded as aristocratic. In sum, the typical cadet came from a solid, though not rich, upper middle-class family, went to a public school, but not to the most prestigious, and then went up to one of the older universities, where he read classics or history and was noted for his application to study and interest in healthy recreation. The bounder, the aesthete, the hearty, and the rake, were not represented in the ranks of the cadets. The origins of the Scots were humbler many had schoolmasters for fathers whereas the Irish tended to come from the smaller landed families, from the parochial gentry rather than the squirearchy.
Two things should be noted about the curriculum vitae of the typical cadet. Firstly, it fitted him for the type of job he was expected to carry out as a colonial civil servant in Hong Kong – the need to apply himself with diligence and intelligence to a series of prosaic tasks, and to sustain interest in the minutiae of bureaucratic life; and secondly, the common social background and education of the cadets helped to create an ésprit de corps, a class and caste feeling, and an intuitive understanding of other cadets, which helped maintain morale and discipline within an hierarchical service. Cadets, it may be surmised, understood one another without the need for excessive interpretation of motive.
Given this common background, training, and the fraternity of class, cadets came to the field with many shared assumptions about, and attitudes towards, the people they governed in the colonial territories. Robert Huessler, for example, argues that the attitude of British Colonial officials 'was not unlike that which they maintained from childhood towards the lesser orders at home. One ruled the people and protected them from local and foreign injustice. Otherwise one lived apart'.30 Perhaps a better analogy would be the model prefect at an English public school. The model prefect is expected to be fair, just, upright, dignified, and withal concerned about his charges. However, he is not likely to support ideas of equality and permissiveness; he must exercise authority.
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