200
MC, while he was a prisoner of war in Japan. Captain Shigeru was later tried and executed for war crimes.
Not connected with the last war is a mirror on which are painted the colours and battle honours of the regiment and which is set in a carved wooden frame. This mirror was originally the property of the Sergeants' Mess of the third battalion and it was used in the ante room of the mess from 1906 when the battalion served in Hong Kong, Tientsin and Peking, up until its disbandment in 1922.
There is, finally, a waist-high Chinese vase decorated with blossoms and birds about which little is known.
My final stop was at the excellent museum of the Royal Engineers, at Chatham, where there are many interesting China-related items.
A whole case contains objects relating to General Charles 'Chinese' Gordon, who was an RE officer. Gorgeous embroidered robes feature dragons, there is a white silk jacket, panels and hangings, a Mandarin's hat with a long pigtail seemingly attached, a silver cup and other items.
A name that crops up in the early history of Hong Kong is John Ouchterlony; he wrote a book "The Chinese War" which was published in 1844. The RE museum has his epaulettes, those of the Madras Engineers, on display.
There is also an executioner's strangling cord, bullets, a fung shui compass, a series of gods from the Summer Palace, a Chinese crossbow, knives and swords. Probably most of these items date from the time of the Second China War, in 1860.
Anyone who can visit Chatham should note that the Royal Engineers library has a large store of information just waiting to be mined. The Engineers left their mark throughout Hong Kong and their projects are well documented and recorded in the reports, journals and other papers held in the library.
I am sure that in each of the establishments mentioned there are other items which I missed; most visits were in and out affairs with a pregnant wife waiting patiently in the car and a not-so-patient two-year-old keeping her company.
200
MC, while he was a prisoner of war in Japan. Captain Shigeru was later tried and executed for war crimes.
Not connected with the last war is a mirror on which are painted the colours and battle honours of the regiment and which is set in a carved wooden frame. This mirror was originally the property of the Sergeants' Mess of the third battalion and it was used in the ante room of the mess from 1906 when the battalion served in Hong Kong, Tientsin and Peking, up until its disbandment in 1922.
There is, finally, a waist-high Chinese vase decorated with blossoms and birds about which little is known.
My final stop was at the excellent museum of the Royal Engineers, at Chatham, where there are many interesting China- related items.
A whole case contains objects relating to General Charles 'Chinese' Gordon, who was an RE officer. Gorgeous embroidered robes feature dragons, there is a white silk jacket, panels and hangings, a Mandarin's hat with a long pigtail seemingly attached, a silver cup and other items,
A name that crops up in the early history of Hong Kong is John Ouchterlony he wrote a book "The Chinese War" which was published in 1844. The RE museum has his epaulettes, those of the Madras Engineers, on display.
There is also an executioner's strangling cord, bullets, a fung shui compass, a series of gods from the Summer Palace, a Chinese crossbow, knives and swords. Probably most of these items date from the time of the Second China War, in 1860.
Anyone who can visit Chatham should note that the Royal Engineers library has a large store of information just waiting to be mined. The Engineers left their mark throughout Hong Kong and their projects are well documented and recorded in the reports, journals and other papers held in the library.
I am sure that in each of the establishments mentioned there are other items which I missed most visits were in and out affairs with a pregnant wife waiting patiently in the car and a not-so-patient two-year-old keeping her company.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.