[ { "id": 214151, "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-1998", "page_number": 9, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "Sheilah Hamilton - The District Watch Force ... 199\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nHong Kong (From the Notes of a Russian Traveller), translation of an article written by Iosif Antonovich Goshkevich in 1871.... 229\n\nHong Kong, translation from a book chapter written by Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov in 1853 237\n\n...... 247\n\nR.G. Horsnell - The Story of Stanley Fort 257\n\nR.G. Horsnell - The Story of Gun Club Hill Barracks ..... 265\n\nB.C. Fawcett - First World War Labour Corps Cemeteries in Flanders 281\n\nKeith Stevens - The American Soldier of Fortune Frederick Townsend Ward: Honoured and Revered by the Chinese with a Memorial Temple 285\n\nRonald Bishop Smith - Sir Ralph Moor and the 'Benin' Cannon of the British Museum and the Royal Armouries 293\n\nPhotographs from the Hong Kong 1906 Typhoon contributed by Victoria Brown 297\n\nDan Waters - Arnold Graham, 1905 - 1996. 305\n\nTranslated letter from the Bishop of the Philippines to the King of Spain dated 1584 contributed by Robin M. Bridge.............. 315\n\nGeoffrey W. Roper - The Drunken Dragon Dance and the Tam Kong (Tam Kung) Festival: Notes on the RAS HK Visit to Macau, May 1997 .. 323\n\nRobert Nield - Bits of Broken China: The RAS Visit to North-east China in Search of Colonial Remnants, 1999 329\n\nviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214426, "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-1998", "page_number": 284, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "250\n\nGun Club Hill Barracks in Kowloon was silenced in this way by British guns on Hong Kong island.\n\nThe Fortress System\n\nBy the 1930s the operation of batteries had become immensely sophisticated and complicated, difficult for a layman to understand. The old 19th century arrangement of individual battery range and position finders was improved by a new arrangement known as the Fortress Range Finding System. Under this system the range of vision and of precision was greatly extended by a series of what were known as Fortress Observation Posts to cover targets within range of the guns. These transmitted bearings and ranges gained from observation to a central Fortress Plotting Room where the target, such as an enemy vessel, was tracked on a chart known as a Fortress Plotter. The co-ordinates of the target were then calculated or computed on a mechanical device known as a predictor which made allowance for the time in flight of the shell and the movement of the vessel assuming it had not realised it had been observed and taken evasive action by changing course. The co-ordinates were then telephoned or telegraphed to the individual batteries which then possessed all the information necessary to engage the enemy, even though the target might be so far away as to be invisible to the Battery Commander. The data could also be relayed directly to the guns where it was displayed on electrically operated dials.\n\nIn Hong Kong as part of reorganisation and modernisation of the Hong Kong defences a Fortress Range Finding system was developed consisting of three Fortress Plotting Rooms at Stanley Fort, Mount Davis and Tytam Gap, also ten Fortress Observation Posts all connected to two Fire Commander's Posts which in turn, were connected to the Commander Fixed Defences who had his Coast Artillery Headquarters in the underground Operational Headquarters in Victoria Barracks known as Fortress HQ, nicknamed the \"Battle Box\". The Fortress Plotting Room at Stanley Fort is located in an underground bunker below an old Signal Station, Block 3, opposite the Officers' Mess. Remains of a plotting table and predictor still can be found inside.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214440, "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-1998", "page_number": 298, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "265\n\nTHE STORY OF GUN CLUB HILL BARRACKS\n\nR.G. HORSNELL\n\nAnyone who walks or drives along Austin Road, Kowloon, past the Kowloon Bowling Club towards Chatham Road, cannot fail to notice the imposing entrance to Gun Club Hill Barracks.\n\nThe old cannon on its granite base at one side of the iron gates guarded by a sentry, and the massive granite retaining wall resembling the wall of an unassailable fortress, make a fitting entrance to the barracks. Yet it did not always look like this. The granite retaining wall was built when the cutting for Austin Road was made, and the main entrance to the barracks originally was from Chatham Road. In the old photograph one can see what the entrance looked like at the turn of the century. Colonnaded buildings stand on the site of the present WOS and Sergeants' Mess, a building in the centre stands on the site of the present Record Office and Training Centre, and a building on the right is where the present Officers' Mess now stands. This building is still there although somewhat remodelled with a front entrance wing added in 1935.\n\nIt is not known for certain when the barracks were established, but in early 1860, before Kowloon was ceded to Britain after the China Wars, several areas had already been mapped out as possible sites for military barracks. A memorandum from the Secretary of War, dated 1860, stated \"The necessity for increased accommodation for the garrison has long been apparent to the military authorities, and the acquisition of a healthy site like that of Kowloon, points at once in the direction in which accommodation must be found.\" One of the sites which was mapped out was Whitfield Barracks, named after Maj. Gen. H.W. Whitfield, Maj. Gen. China, Hong Kong and Straits Settlements (1869-1874) to the west of Nathan Road in Tsimshatsui. Another site was Gun Club Hill, probably one of the nine hills which gave Kowloon its name. The site then encompassed the Kowloon Cricket Club ground, but the present 25 acre site is bounded by Chatham Road, Austin Road, Jordan Path, Jordan Road and Gascoigne Road, this last road named after another CBF - Maj. Gen. Sir W.J. Gascoigne KCMG, Maj. Gen. China and Hong Kong (1898-1903).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214441, "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-1998", "page_number": 299, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "266\n\nThe origin of the name \"Gun Club Hill\" is uncertain, but it may be because a gun club was once based there. Shooting was a popular pastime with the army and Kowloon with its market gardens, streams and paddy fields would have provided good sport. Game would have included resident birds such as the Chinese francolin or partridge, and the spotted-neck dove, as well as migratory birds such as teal, duck, geese, quail, woodcock and snipe. The latter are winter visitors and still visit Hong Kong. The writer has observed snipe on two separate occasions in the Kowloon urban area, once in Gun Club Hill Barracks itself. Doves can also still be seen in the Barracks.\n\nThe name \"Gun Club\" may however also be derived from the firing range in King's Park which followed almost exactly the present line of Wylie Road. Old record maps in the Public Records Office show the range extending north from the firing points at Gun Club Hill across Gascoigne Road to the butts near the present site of the old British Military Hospital. A shorter range, to the west of the military range, on the present site of Queen Elizabeth Hospital was probably the police firing range or the Naval Association firing range.\n\nThe whole of this area, now known as King's Park, was reserved for rifle ranges, field firing and military exercises. At the north end of the park was a hill known as Danger Flag Hill where red warning flags were flown when firing was taking place. This hill is now the public open space known as King's Park Rise Garden. Steps wind up the hill past numerous benches and pergolas to the summit where there is a curious rock formation of huge boulders almost forming a natural redoubt. There is now no evidence of any military use, although originally there may have been a range warden's store for targets and flags. There is a good view from the summit looking south down Wylie Road to Gun Club Hill.\n\nThe cession of the Kowloon Peninsula to Britain opened up new areas of training for the military. Companies from units based at Murray and Victoria Barracks were sent to Kowloon on monthly rotation for firing and musket practice. Before the barracks were built the troops were quartered in tents. Early photographs of Kowloon show large tented encampments stretching right across the peninsula.\n\nMatsheds were also used to accommodate newly disembarked", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214442, "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-1998", "page_number": 300, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "267\n\ntroops in quarantine. These were built from a framework of bamboo poles lashed together, with walls and roofs of palm leaves and woven rush mats. Similar structures can still be seen today on vacant lots erected at times of Chinese festivals for Cantonese opera performances. The only difference is that today zinc sheeting is used instead of matting. The matsheds were not popular with the troops as mosquitos and other insect life infested the sheds. During typhoons or heavy rains the sheds were liable to collapse and leave the troops exposed to the weather. The building of proper barracks was therefore imperative for the health of the troops.\n\nThe first permanent buildings at Gun Club Hill were constructed in 1903-4 for infantry but were soon afterwards occupied by the Asiatic Artillery which was originally made up of Sikh and Punjabi Mussulman Companies known as Gun Lascars. They became the Hong Kong Asiatic Artillery in 1891 and the Hong Kong-Singapore Battalion Royal Artillery in 1898. In 1905 four companies were housed in the newly completed barrack blocks flanking the parade ground. According to PRO records construction was \"brick and granite and best Manilla Hardwood; outer walls of Amoy Brick and inner walls of Canton Brick.\" By 1909 other buildings had been built and a layout of the barracks at this time shows an Infants' School, Followers' Hut, Sikh/Mohammedan Cookhouse, NCOs' Quarters, Guard House, Sergeants' Mess, Officers' Mess, and a small Medical Centre.\n\nMost of these buildings have now been replaced with more modern buildings, but two of the original barrack blocks facing the Parade Ground still exist, together with the Medical Centre and the Officers' Mess although somewhat changed in appearance. Photographic evidence in the Public Records Office shows that the buildings were brick-built two-storey colonial style blocks with pitched Chinese tiled roofs and balustraded 'Venetian' verandahs. The Officers' Mess seems to have undergone an external facelift in the 1930s with an annex added on to the south elevation facing the Chatham Road entrance. The barrack blocks and Medical Centre were remodelled and altered in the 1960s but retain much of their original colonial style.\n\nThe Medical Centre, formerly the Soldiers' Canteen, numbered Block 11, is a single storey rectangular white painted brick-built block with an eight bay front verandah with a flight of steps at each end\n\nPage 300\n\nPage 301", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214447, "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-1998", "page_number": 305, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "272\n\nGun Club Hill Barracks, Chatham Road Entrance Circa 1910 (Public Records Office, Government Records Service)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214448, "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-1998", "page_number": 306, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "Gun Club Hill Barracks, Block 1 facing the Parade Ground (Public Records Office, Government Records Service).\n\n273", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214449, "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-1998", "page_number": 307, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "274\n\n1935\n\nGun Club Hill Barracks, Officers' Mess Addition Built 1935 (Public Records Office, Government Records Service)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214450, "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-1998", "page_number": 308, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "27\n\nGun Club Hill Barracks, Old Infants' School Demolished 1977 (Author's collection)\n\n275", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214451, "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-1998", "page_number": 309, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "276\n\nGun Club Hill Barracks, Officers' Mess Rear Elevation (Author's collection)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214452, "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-1998", "page_number": 310, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "277\n\nAppendix A\n\nCHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY NOTES\n\n1860\n\nKowloon peninsula ceded to Britain after the China Wars.\n\n1862\n\n1863\n\nGun Club Hill & King's Park areas were tented encampments with horse lines in the Chatham Road area.\n\n2nd Bttn. 20th Foot arrived in Hong Kong in December and encamped in Kowloon.\n\n1885\n\nGun Club Hill range in existence but no buildings.\n\n1888\n\n1892\n\n1899\n\n1904\n\n1905\n\n1909\n\n1910\n\n91st Argylls arrived in December and spent first days in Kowloon matsheds at either Whitfield Bks or Gun Club.\n\nArgylls replaced by 1st Bttn. The King's Shropshire Light Infantry and quarantined in Kowloon matsheds because of smallpox outbreak on the troop ship from Alexandria.\n\nSeveral companies of Royal Welsh Fusileers quartered at Gun Club following disembarkation.\n\nBarracks Blocks, Officers' Mess, Guard House, Soldiers' Canteen, etc. in existence.\n\nCol. Lewis, RE(Rt.) visited Gun Club which housed the Asiatic Artillery, King's Park described as \"very rough\" presumably still being used for army training. Rosary Church built same year in Chatham Road (then named De Voeux Road).\n\nMohammedan/Sikh Cookhouse and Followers' Hut in existence.\n\n1st Bttn. The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry at", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214455, "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-1998", "page_number": 313, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "280\n\n* See Appendix B.\n\nSt. ELIGIUS (or ELOI)\n\nAppendix B\n\nArtisan and Bishop. Born near Limoges, c. 588 : died at Noyon 660. Feast Day 1st December.\n\nCame of a modest Gallo-Roman family, and was apprenticed to the Master of the Mint at Limoges. In due course, coming to the notice of King Chlotar II, he was appointed to a similar post at Marseilles; on Chlotar's death in 629, Dagobert I became his patron, and Eligius acquired considerable influence with the King. He had a great talent for engraving and smithing, and gained sufficient wealth to found a monastery at Solignac and a convent for women in Paris. In 641 Dagobert chose him to be Bishop of Noyon and Tournat. He discharged this office with vigour, especially in the foundation of religious houses and in missionary work among the heathen Frisans. St. Eligius was an outstanding churchman of his day, a friend and counsellor of St. Bathild, and very generous to the poor. Numerous works of art, especially reliquaries, were attributed to his workmanship, some of which still exist. He is the patron saint of smiths, farriers and all kinds of metalworkers.\n\nSource: Plaque in St. Eligius' Church, Gun Club Hill Barracks, Kowloon (demolished 1994).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215883, "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-2002", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "115\n\nfor the surveying and associated film shooting exercises.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nBooks and journal articles\n\nBard, Solomon 1988 In Search of the Past: a Guide to the Antiquities of Hong Kong. Hong Kong, Urban Council.\n\nEather, Charles Chic 1996 Airport of the Nine Dragons: Kai Tak Kowloon. Surfers Paradise, Australia, ChingChic Publishers.\n\nEmpson, Hal 1992 Mapping Hong Kong: a Historical Atlas. Hong Kong, Government Printer (Bilingual: English and Chinese).\n\nHorsnell, R.G. 2000 \"The Story of Stanley Fort,” The Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 38, 1998/1999, pp. 247-263.\n\nHorsnell, R.G. 2000 \"The Story of Gun Club Hill Barracks,” The Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 38, 1998/1999, pp. 265-280.\n\nKo, Tim Keung and Wordie, Jason 1996 Ruins of War: A Guide to Hong Kong's Battlefields and Wartime Sites. Hong Kong, Joint Publishing (Hong Kong).\n\nKo, Tim Keung 2001 War Relics in the Green. Hong Kong, Cosmos Books.\n\nLai, Lawrence Wai Chung; Ho, Daniel Chi Wing and Lung, Ping Yee 'Disused Military Structures on Devil's Peak: a Post-Colonial Planning and Building Analysis on Pre-war British Coastal Defence Structures in Hong Kong', EKISTICS, forthcoming.\n\nLee, Klaudia 2002 \"War Relics Disappearing Under the Weight of Neglect, Historians Warn,\" South China Morning Post, 17 November 2002, p. 2.\n\nRollo, Denis 1992 The Guns and Gunners of Hong Kong. Hong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]