[
    {
        "id": 214468,
        "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": 326,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "294\n\nMr Read is therefore of opinion that as the two bronze guns are practically identical, and as the iron ones are of more interest as ordnance than from the ethnographical point of view, the three objects forming the first consignment might be more appropriately deposited at the Tower.\n\nHe has consulted Major Gallwey who agrees to this disposal of the guns, but he (Mr Read) would propose to write to Sir Ralph Moor to explain what has been done.\n\nFrom the above we see that the four cannon were offered by Sir Ralph Moor, at that time Commissioner and Consul-General of the Niger Coast Protectorate, to the British Museum in 1899, and that Charles H. Read (then Keeper of the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography) in consultation with Lord Dillion (then Keeper of the Armouries of the Tower of London) proposed to keep one of the cannon for the ethnographical collection of the British Museum, and to pass the other three cannons to the Tower of London.\n\nIn the Central Archives of the British Museum, in the \"Report of Donations\" (of the cited department) there is a register of Charles H. Read dated 9 June 1899 stating that Sir Ralph Moor, K.C.M.G., H.M. Commissioner for the Niger Coast Protectorate, donated to the Museum a bronze gun and a modern bronze plaque. It reads as follows.\n\nA bronze gun with the arms of Portugal probably made in Benin, and a bronze plaque, a specimen of modern Benin casting.\n\n(The accession numbers of the two objects, by which they are identified today, are respectively 1899, 6-10, 1 and 1899, 6-10, 2.)\n\nThe two documents from which I quote above have been located for me by Christopher Date, Assistant Museum Archivist, at the Central Archives of the British Museum. To Mr Date I heartily extend my thanks.\n\nAt my request Mr Date has also located for me what I believe is the only published reference to the British Museum cannon before 1995.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214469,
        "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": 327,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "295\n\nIf is found in the Annual Report containing an account or statement of objects added to the British Museum in 1899, and other Particulars \"Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 5 March 1900\", at p.77. This publication is of very scarce circulation. The entry reads as follows.\n\nBronze cannon with the arms of Portugal and modern cast bronze plaque from Benin city; given by Sir Ralph Moor, K.C.M.G., H.M. Commissioner and Consul-General, Niger Coast Protectorate.\n\nChristopher Date, through help of colleagues in the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities, has also kindly supplied to me a number of photocopies of letters, to and from Sir Ralph Moor, on various matters, found in the departmental archives. To Mr Date and his colleagues again I extend my thanks. One of these letters is a copy sent to Sir Ralph by Charles H. Read on the cannon. I quote the part referring to the cannons, roughly the first half of the letter. It is dated 13 June 1899.\n\nThe two bronze and two iron cannon that you have been good to send have duly arrived, and Major Gallwey has called here about them, though I unfortunately missed him. I do not know whether you saw all the guns before they came: but they really form two pairs, those of bronze being quite the same in size and general character while the iron ones have differences which are of interest as ordnance, but less from my point of view. I consulted my friend Lord Dillon, who is one of our Trustees, and also Keeper of the Tower Armoury, and he thought that the bronze guns and one of the iron ones were made in Benin, while one iron gun was made in Europe and ...ted. (4) The interest of the pieces being thus chiefly from the point of view of ordnance. I asked Major Gallwey if he thought you would mind some of the guns going to the Tower, in place of remaining here, and he authorized me to do this. Thus you will receive from here only an acknowledgment for one gun and the tablet.\n\nBy letter of Sir Ralph Moor to Charles H. Read dated 29 July 1899",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215008,
        "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-2000",
        "page_number": 104,
        "title": "RAS-2000",
        "content_text": "60\n\nremembered that the cemeteries and memorials are primarily places of individual commemoration and excessive signage can detract from this.\n\nThere are many cemeteries and memorials in Belgium and France where members of the Commonwealth forces are buried and commemorated. The Menin Gate at Ypres commemorates over 54,270 who died in the Ypres Salient, from October 1914 to the 15/16th August 1917, and who have no known grave. Those who died from 17 August 1917 to the end of the war and have no known grave, over 34,880, are commemorated on panels at Tynecot, which is also the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world with 11,856 graves. In France, the memorial at Thiepval commemorates over 72,000 Commonwealth members who died on the Somme and who have no known grave. At none of the above are there any names of members of the CLC. At Etaples, there are over 11,400 graves of World War I, including that of one Chinese member of the CLC, Fu Puzhen, 9436, a Ganger of the 56th Company. As Keith Stevens remarked, Fu here, alone, represents his countrymen with a population amounting to a quarter of the world's total.\n\nThe last cemetery the Friends visited was Les Baraques Military at Sangatte, south of Calais. Of the 197 named CLC members buried there virtually all were from Shandong province and the metropolitan area of Zhili. Only two came from other provinces, Anhui and Hubei. There were several seamen commemorated who most probably would have been Cantonese from the south and recruited by the Royal Navy in Hong Kong. There are also graves of British personnel who served with or were attached to the CLC. We saw the grave of 2Lt E S Burley, Army Labour Corps, attached to the Chinese Labour Corps, who died on 15th February 1919, aged 44 years, whose parents came from London, England and whose wife lived in South Africa.\n\nOn a later personal visit to this cemetery, with my wife, we located the grave of Gunner M E Barnes of the 43rd Company, Royal Garrison Artillery who transferred, in the rank of corporal, to the 135th Labour Company, Chinese Labour Corps Royal Garrison Artillery. He died on 19th November 1919, aged 49 years; and was a native of Lewes in Sussex. Also the grave of Private M Cooper of the 2nd/6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, who transferred to the 88th Labour Company,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n",
        "rank": 0
    }
]