[ { "id": 209962, "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-1983", "page_number": 221, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "199\n\nA pair of Chinese drums, each with writhing dragons, with colours still surprisingly bright considering their age, is on show. There are Chinese caricatures of British soldiers and a red lion rears on the ensign which flew from a piquet boat in the attack on Chusan in 1842.\n\nThe regiment was one of those honoured by being allowed to carry the China dragon on its badge and it still features today, with the word \"China\" underneath, on the buttons and badges of the Border Regiment. The museum has a good collection of belt plates and cap badges bearing the dragon.\n\nThere is an interesting Chinese map, epaulettes and medals of the First China War. A banner seized by the 55th now in Kendal Church is the subject of a separate note.\n\nMore modern memories of Hong Kong are housed in the museum of the Middlesex Regiment, in Bruce Castle, Tottenham, London. The museum was closed for re-organisation when I visited but I was kindly shown the relevant items in the collection. The role of this distinguished regiment in the 1941 battle for Hong Kong is well known. There are several weapons which were used in the battle. One machine gun was buried to prevent its capture by the Japanese and it was recovered after the Allied victory. A Japanese machine gun is also held.\n\nThere is a framed menu card which was used on the regiment's Albuhera Day, 10th May 1943, in a Hong Kong prison-of-war camp. Sketched on the front is a guard tower and those present have signed their names. A Japanese flag bears the Rising Sun. Other reminders of POW life are the 1st Battalion's bugle which was used in Hong Kong, and later in Japanese prison camps and a small wireless set which was used secretly in the prison-of-war camp here. For refusing to divulge its whereabouts Colonel L.A. Newnham was tortured and executed. He was posthumously awarded the George Cross.\n\nThe museum also has a small flat fan with a pagoda painted on it which belonged to Captain Kyodo Shigeru of the Lisbon Maru. A poignant reminder of the incident is a sketch which shows the stern of the ship already under water and the decks crowded with desperate men. The drawing was kept for over two years concealed in a bamboo stick by Major C.M.M. Man,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209965, "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-1983", "page_number": 224, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "202\n\nAN IMPERIAL CHINESE BANNER PRESERVED IN KENDAL, ENGLAND\n\nP. BRUCE\n\nA unique memento of the First China War is slowly disintegrating in an English parish church due to lack of money to restore it.*\n\nThe war led to the establishment of Hong Kong and one of the British regiments which took part was the 55th (Westmoreland). At the second taking of Chusan, on October 1, 1841, the regiment seized an Imperial Chinese banner. Today it hangs, alongside the disbanded regiment's colours, in a glass case to the left side of the altar of Kendal Parish Church. This banner was the only Imperial Chinese banner seized by British troops during the First China War.\n\nThe vicar of Kendal, and the Border Regiment, which includes the old 55th in its genealogy, are well aware of the urgent need for the banner to receive conservation treatment. The problem is, as ever, money. Estimates of the cost of restoring the banner range somewhere around £2,000 and neither the church nor the regiment can offer any immediate hope of it being raised.\n\nThe episode in which the flag was taken is described in a verse history of the campaign prepared some years afterwards for the 55th. After 20 years service a soldier named Duell had gained a commission. He was given the honour of bearing the regimental colours that autumn day:\n\n\"Ensign Duell holds up our Colour, then falls, shot through the breast.\n\nThat morn had seen the ambition of a life fulfilled.\n\nAn honour borne but for a day, the day that he was killed. For twenty years or more he had well and faithful served, Winning his way, step by step, to a Commission well deserved. And when his name appeared in the previous night's Gazette, All wished him, health, long life, success, to wear his epaulette;\n\n* See plate 11.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209966, "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-1983", "page_number": 225, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "203\n\nAnd like a brave and gallant soul he pleaded for the honour, To carry in the coming fight the Regimental Colour. Into his willing hands they gave the sacred trust;\n\nThat night the Colour still remained, but, he was as the dust. As Colour Serjeant Davison took the colour from the dead, Another well-aimed shot takes off the gilt spear-head. The first upon the hill was the gallant Lieutenant Butler, Who attacked, and took a Flag from a Chinese soldier; The Standard-bearer falls but we preserve the trophy, In Kendal Church it now hangs up, a record of our glory.\"\n\nThe colours, which fluttered in Hong Kong when the regiment was stationed here after the hostilities are also in urgent need of conservation.\n\nModern viewpoints have assessments of glory or otherwise which differ from those of the 1840s. But the banner in Kendal church is unique and it would be a tragedy if it were allowed to disintegrate. Lt. Colonel Ralph May, Curator of the Regimental Museum of the Border Regiment and Kings Own Royal Border Regiment, Queen Mary's Tower, The Castle, Carlisle, would be delighted to hear of any offers of help in preservation. Given the uniqueness of the banner and the circumstances of its seizure, is it too much to hope that the money to permit that preservation might be found in Hong Kong?\n\nNOTE\n\n1 The action in which the 55th gained the Imperial banner, and in which Ensign Duell was killed is described also in The Border Magazine, September 1955, pp. 178-179, and in the Historical Account of the 34th and 55th Regiments (publ. in the 1870s) pp. 78-79 (information by courtesy of The Curator, The Regimental Museum of the Border Regiment and the Kings Own Border Regiment).\n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210021, "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-1983", "page_number": 279, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "Plate 11: The banner seized at Chusan in October 1841. Now in Kendal Parish Church it is in urgent need of conservation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214566, "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": 424, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "393\n\nvi We are indebted to the Museum of the King's Own Royal Border Regiment in the Castle at Carlisle for permission to quote from the regimental diaries of the Westmoreland Regiment in Chusan.\n\nvii See the article \"The Taking of Chapu\" by Keith Stevens in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the RAS: Vol.34 : 1994 : pp 119+.\n\nviii The report would appear to have been written in the 1880s during the incumbency as the Colonel of the Regiment of Lieutenant General Daubeny. This was about the same time as an amalgamation of regiments when the Westmoreland Regiment became the 2nd Battalion of the Border Regiment.\n\nix Regimental number omitted\n\n* Ensign Richard James Duell fell dead, shot in the chest at close quarters during the assault on the heights held by the Chinese. He had only heard that morning, October 1, 1841, of his promotion from the rank of Sergeant-Major and at once requested the honour to carry the regimental colour in the impending attack. During the advance Lieutenant and Acting-Adjutant Butler, after a sharp struggle with a Chinese soldier, captured the only imperial standard taken during the war. It was deposited in Kendal Church where it can still be seen beside the regimental memorial. [see also Bruce, P: An Imperial Chinese Banner Preserved in Kendal, England: Journal HK Br RAS: vol. 23: 1983 pp 202-203]\n\nxi Beside the Chinese characters, extreme left of the inscription, is a small cartouche containing smaller illegible characters which was almost certainly a date in old style.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]