[ { "id": 210369, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 340, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "319\n\nSaiyingpun for the 11 a.m. Matins service. St Peter's at that time was situated at the site where the Western Police Station now stands. The site also contained a Seamen's Home. In days of old many ships berthed at West Point and the sailors attended the services there. I have but to close my eyes now and I can see the words GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON painted in brilliant letters on the wall behind the altar. The school supplied two rows of choir boys. Henry Sykes, the assistant headmaster, often filled the role of organist.\n\nBetween 2.00 and 4.00 p.m. on Sundays, the boys had to learn the Collect of the day and a portion of the Gospel by heart for repetition to the Master on duty. The Gospel was easier to learn than the Collect which, although shorter, was more difficult to master.\n\nThere followed a short rest after which the boys, with the exception of the very young ones, had to proceed to St John's for the 6.30 p.m. Evening Service. On returning to school after Evensong, after the long walk, the boys had to attend a final service held in the School Hall by the Master on duty. They were then permitted to retire to their dormitory at 8.00 p.m. Meals were frugal.\n\nSir Claud Severn, who was then the Colonial Secretary and, for brief periods, the Officer Administering the Government, took a keen interest in the Diocesan Boys' School. He would send the Governor's car, with its Crown, when he was O.A.G., to the school to fetch some of the choir boys to join the Cathedral choir. Sir Claud himself sang with the Cathedral choir. He had a strong bass voice which he employed to perfection in his rendering of Good King Wenceslas and the First Nowell in Christmas services. His singing always thrilled the boys who sang treble. According to one of our school masters Sir Claud nearly married Miss Goggin, our school matron. Unfortunately the romance ended when Miss Goggin died in January 1920. She had a brother who was shipping manager of Dodwell & Co. Ltd., at the time.\n\nThe organist at St John's in my time was Denman Fuller. In those days the Cathedral had a grand pipe organ which to my", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212309, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 251, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "By the 1970s, it was no longer such a competitive and profitable organisation and its operations were scaled down. A purpose-built factory was completed on Tsing Yi island in 1991.\n\nAlthough the Swire Group over five generations has always had its head office in England, it has interests throughout Asia and the South Pacific, as well as in North America and Australia. Its China Navigation Company began operations on the Yangtze River in 1872. In World War II, more than half of Swire's ships were lost. A dockyard (of which more later) was established in Hong Kong at the turn of the century.\n\nThe group, which adopts a relatively low profile, has about 28,000 employees in 1988, and is the second largest employer in Hong Kong after the Government. Its complement included, up to 1990, 78-year old Madame Ho Sau-King who had worked at Taikoo Sugar Limited since 1928.\n\nIn 1981 John Bremridge (later Sir John), Taipan of Swire's, became Government Financial Secretary for a term of five years. This was an unprecedented appointment as previous 'FSs' had been promoted through the ranks of the civil service. Like the son of the founder of Swire's, Sir John Bremridge writes and speaks to the point”.\n\nThe conglomeration of interests of this (still largely) family firm and private limited company includes an elite collection of Hong Kong enterprises. Swire's has a controlling interest in Cathay Pacific Airways, founded in 1948, as well as in HAECO aircraft maintenance company. Property is also big business and about 45 per cent of the group's net asset value is in bricks and mortar. Other interests include container terminals, technology, engineering, air catering, investment banking, travel and general trading. Sir Adrian and Sir John Swire have a family fortune estimated at HK$6.3 billion, and in 1989 Sir John was quoted by the Sunday Times Magazine as being Britain's 12th richest person, a position he held jointly with his brother.\n\nDodwell's\n\nW.R. Adamson and Company (later, Adamson Bell and Company), the forerunner of Dodwell's, was founded as a result of the efforts of a group of Cheshire weavers who needed to increase supplies of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212310, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 252, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "224\n\nraw silk for their mills. Adanison arrived in Shanghai, on their behalf, in 1852. In 1858 he formed his own firm, exporting tea and general merchandise, and set up branches in Hong Kong, Foochow and Hongkow. There were ten European employees.\n\nIn 1872, the firm appointed a shipping clerk in its Shanghai office named George Benjamin Dodwell. He was 20 years old, born in Derby, and was paid 400 pounds for the first year of service, with a room, fire, light and medical bills met by the firm. Dodwell was allowed five per cent of all profits of the shipping business on everything earned above 700 taels per annum (equivalent to 2,100 sterling). He also had a share in other profits in an attempt to stop him branching out on his own account. Another condition of appointment was that he should 'not indulge in racing of horses and ponies'. This contrasted with the conditions of service for Jardine's who were not against their employees having a wager.\n\nIn 1876, Adamson Bell and Company's tea shipments (at the end of the nineteenth century nearly 60 per cent of China's exports consisted of tea and silk) were only marginally behind those of Jardines and Butterfield and Swires. For much of his work Dodwell was assisted by the firm's compradore. Nonetheless, a considerable amount of financial risk was involved. Dodwell and A.J.M. Carlill finally took over the bankrupt Adamson Bell Company [which is still known as Tien Cheang (天昌) meaning heavenly prosperity] on May 1st, 1891.\n\nCanadian Pacific Railways (CPR) chartered sailing ships to import goods from China and Japan. Dodwell had entered into a three-year contract with Sir William Van Horne of CPR. But, as business was good, CPR decided to run its own fast mail line in place of hiring old Cunarders.\n\nDodwell was told his contract would not be renewed, but he was asked to continue to manage the CPR services at the Far Eastern end. Van Horne was impressed by Dodwell as a man, and he offered him full control of the new CPR shipping line if Dodwell would abandon his newly established firm and join CPR as an employee. He was offered a salary and commissions totalling at least 4,000 pounds a year. Dodwell declined, preferring to head his own new enterprise which he had rescued, and would rebuild, from bankruptcy.\n\nIt is the worst day's work you have ever done, Dodwell\",", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212311, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 253, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "230\n\nVan Horne threatened, \"I will crush you. Don't you attempt to start a steamship line of your own. If you do, we will run you off the Pacific.\"\n\nDodwell retired from the East in 1899, the year his firm became a limited company.\n\nIt has continued to prosper. But much of its success in earlier days was due to the personal contribution of Dodwell himself. Profits increased from his shipping department. He also played a prominent part in the shipping world as a whole. G.B. Dodwell, a man of high principles, died in 1925.\n\nGilman's\n\nRichard James Gilman, a tea-taster, who worked for the old established company of Dent's in Canton, set up a partnership, known as Gilman and Bowman, in a Canton factory in 1840. By 1863 the firm was also represented at Kiukiang, Hankow and Tientsin, employing 21 staff. In many ways the firm was similar to Dodwell's, but on a smaller scale, and it was substantially involved in shipments of tea from Shanghai and Foochow in the 1870s.\n\nGilman's was also active in the import-export trade and shipping, and in 1862 it was appointed agents for Lloyd's at Canton, Hankow, Foochow, Hong Kong and Macau. In these ports its reputation in shipping circles was high, especially after the famous tea race of 1866. 'Taeping (sic) Yeung Hong' (KF) (Great Peace Foreign Firm) chartered the 'Taiping' (named after Gilmans) which beat 'Ariel', the rival ship, by 20 minutes over a 99-day voyage from Foochow to London.\n\nGilman's also played an important part in promoting the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, when it was established in 1864, and it was represented on its Board in its earlier days.\n\nGilman's failed, however, to heed the warning that there was a growing preference for Indian and Ceylon teas in Britain, and, heavily indebted to its London agent Ashton & Company, it came close to bankruptcy. Gilmans had to abandon its Shanghai and Hankow branches in the 1880s. But, with the huge demand for joss sticks in Southern China, the agency for the Australian Sandalwood Company helped", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212312, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 254, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "231\n\nit to recover. Gilmans was taken over by Duncar, Paterson of Perth, Western Australia, in 1917, and converted into a private limited company incorporated in Hong Kong. It suffered, however, during the depression in the 1930s, although the backing of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank helped it to expand and prosper especially up to the Japanese invasion in 1941.\n\nGibb Livingston\n\nGibb Livingston, which like Gilmans may be seen as a smaller yet similar version of Dodwells, is the second oldest (after Jardines) trading firm in Hong Kong. It was founded by two Scotsmen, Thomas Augustus Gibb and William Potter Livingston, in Canton, in 1836. There it occupied one building which served as an office, a warehouse, and a residence. The firm imported English cottons and woollens and exported tea and silk. Silver bullion was used as payment. The two founders soon started to diversify into such fields as shirtings, velveteen, leather, and tin plate, and acted as agents for a large number of sailing ships. At an early date, four Gibbs worked in the firm. Branches were opened in Hong Kong (1841), Amoy, and Shanghai. In addition to the import-export trade, Gibb Livingston acted as agents for Ben Line steamships, although, unlike Dodwells, it also acquired its own tea clippers. Then, in 1899, it purchased a fleet of steamers which sailed as the Gibb Line.\n\nGibb Livingston is said to have diversified earlier and more successfully than Gilmans. By 1908, it was one of the most important business houses in Hong Kong. Here, as in Shanghai, it specialised in shipping, and, later, in insurance. At the turn of the century, it had interests in Hong Kong Electric Company, Shanghai Land Investment Company, and a number of other firms. It also branched out into engineering and manufacturing. In 1921, Gibb Livingston was acquired by Gray, David and Company.\n\nJardine's and Swire's are by no means the only old British firms in the Far East. Dodwell's, Gilmans, and Gibb Livingston have also been trading here for many years, although now all three are within the Inchcape Group which was formed as recently as 1958.\n\nCaldbeck, Macgregor and Company\n\nA fourth firm in the Inchcape fold, Caldbeck, Macgregor and Company", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212313, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 255, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "232\n\nCompany, was originally established in Shanghai after John Macgregor and Jack Caldbeck purchased the business of George Smith and Company. Macgregor had come East to seek his fortune after serving in the Royal Navy in the Crimean War. Caldbeck had been the P&O agent in Singapore. Unlike other firms, Caldbeck Macgregor specialised in wines and spirits. From its original base in Shanghai, which started in 1864, it opened branches along the China coast with outposts in Peking and Tientsin doing especially good trade.\n\nIn 1882 an office was established in London, and a branch opened in Hong Kong in 1889. The latter was started partly because of the popularity here of horse racing. Although employees in some firms, such as Dodwell's, had been discouraged from taking part in the sport, the partners of Caldbeck Macgregor were able to investigate the potential of various wines and spirits at race meetings. It soon became the best known firm in the liquor business in the Far East. Caldbeck Macgregor was much more of a family concern than most organisations until this control was lost in the late 1960s.\n\nHutchison's\n\nIn 1877 John Du Flon Hutchison, aged 22, came to Hong Kong to join Robert S. Walker and Company who were merchants in Gough Street. Known as Wo Kee in Chinese (和記), the firm opened for business about 1860. Probably in the 1880s he began trading on his own, as John D. Hutchison, and, in 1893, with one assistant named W.M. Watson, his company operated from Stanley Street. Hutchison died in Shanghai in 1920, although he had sold his firm in 1917 to T.E. Pearce.\n\nJohn Douglas Clague (much later Sir Douglas) had been captured by the Japanese in Hong Kong in 1941, but managed to escape from Sham Shui Po prisoner of war camp in 1942, and, with the help of Chinese partisans, Clague made his way over the hills into China. There he served with the British Army Aid Group.\n\nWith a brilliant war record behind him Colonel Clague became Taipan of Hutchison's in the late 1940s. It expanded rapidly taking over many other companies which had interests in a variety of fields. But the Group over-extended itself and ran into financial difficulties in the 1970s. As a result an Australian businessman who had lived in\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 } ]