TRACING GRAVES IN HONG KONG: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
DAN WATERS
395
In a letter dated 4 April 1998, the RASHKB received a request from the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA) to try to trace seven graves in Hong Kong. The BACSA had received these requests from the dead persons' relatives, living in Britain, who were seeking information regarding the whereabouts of the graves. Apart from names and in four cases exact dates (in the other three cases approximate dates) of deaths, no other information was, I was informed, available. We were not told, for instance, the dead persons' religions or denominations which made the search more difficult.
The first attempt to track down the graves amounted to the best part of a Saturday afternoon which I spent in what, up to the early 1970s was known as the Colonial Cemetery, in Happy Valley on Hong Kong Island. It is now called the Hong Kong Cemetery. This is mainly Protestant although there are a few Japanese and Chinese buried there who were not Christians. On plan, the cemetery is divided into sections. There, with the help of Mr Pau Chi-sing the full-time cemetery attendant, after searching the register, I was eventually able to find three graves. Names, dates of deaths, sections in the cemetery and grave numbers are as follows:
Boyle, Shirley Florence, 5 November 1945, Section 16F, Grave 10232
Boyle, Florence Ruby, 12 August 1968, Section 45, Grave 7423
Cornell, Francis Heawood, October 1908, Section 16, Grave 11772
Bearing in mind the ages of the graves, with no relatives or friends locally (one supposes) to look after them, they are in reasonable condition. Some settlement has taken place and gravestones are in need of repairs in some cases. Cleaning and re-polishing are necessary. As a result names are not always easy to read which made finding the graves more difficult. The last headstone mentioned above (Cornell), which is surmounted by a cross, has settled especially badly.
TRACING GRAVES IN HONG KONG: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
DAN WATERS
395
In a letter dated 4 April 1998, the RASHKB received a request from the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA) to try to trace seven graves in Hong Kong. The BACSA had received these requests from the dead persons' relatives, living in Britain, who were seeking information regarding the whereabouts of the graves. Apart from names and in four cases exact dates (in the other three cases ap- proximate dates) of deaths, no other information was, I was informed, available. We were not told, for instance, the dead persons' religions or denominations which made the search more difficult.
The first attempt to track down the graves amounted to the best part of a Saturday afternoon which I spent in what, up to the early 1970s was known as the Colonial Cemetery, in Happy Valley on Hong Kong Island. It is now called the Hong Kong Cemetery. This is mainly Protestant although there are a few Japanese and Chinese buried there who were not Christians. On plan, the cemetery is divided into sections. There, with the help of Mr Pau Chi-sing the full-time cemetery attendant, after searching the register, I was eventually able to find three graves. Names, dates of deaths, sections in the cemetery and grave numbers are as follows:
10232
7423
Boyle, Shirley Florence, 5 November 1945, Section 16F, Grave
Boyle, Florence Ruby, 12 August 1968, Section 45, Grave 11772 Cornell, Francis Heawood, October 1908, Section 16, Grave
Bearing in mind the ages of the graves, with no relatives or friends locally (one supposes) to look after them, they are in reasonable: condition. Some settlement has taken place and gravestones are in need of repairs in some cases. Cleaning and re-polishing are necessary. As a result names are not always easy to read which made finding the graves more difficult. The last headstone mentioned above (Cornell), which is surmounted by a cross, has settled especially badly.
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