[ { "id": 212000, "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-1989", "page_number": 415, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "390\n\nStaging this piece has atropaic effects, cleansing the site from harmful influences or malicious spirits. Because opportunities to see \"The White Tiger\" staged are rare, it was felt worth printing a photograph (Plate 23) of the piece as staged at the Lung Yeuk Tau rat siu opera matshed in 1983.\n\nIssei TanakA\n\nBRITISH CHINESE LABOUR CORPS LABOURERS BURIED IN ENGLAND\n\nProbably the only visible reminder of an episode in Sino-British military history in Britain is the group of six graves of Chinese labourers who died during or just after the Great War. Of the two thousand or so who died in Western Europe of the nearly hundred thousand Chinese shipped to France by the British only six lie in British soil, in the Shorncliffe Military Cemetery, which is situated beside the former Shorncliffe Military Hospital above the Channel port of Folkestone. They rest far from their native Shantung and Honan provinces, with no indication as to how they died. The proximity of the former hospital suggests that they may well have succumbed from injuries, wounds or epidemic.\n\n\"China on the Western Front\", by Michael Summerskill, published by Summerskill in 1982 which describes other military cemeteries, in France, where Chinese labourers are buried, is a most interesting description of the British Chinese Labour Corps with its officer cadre consisting mainly of missionaries and sinologues.\n\nDespite each of the thousands of Chinese labourers being awarded a war medal, it is worth noting that they are exceedingly rare and a much sought after collectors' item. It would be interesting to know where they all went.\n\nThe illustrations (Plates 24 and 25) are of Shorncliffe Military cemetery with the English Channel and Romney Marsh in the background; and of one of the six gravestones, all of which are well cared for in a tranquil spot under shady trees.\n\nKEITH STEVENS", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212057, "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-1989", "page_number": 472, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "Plates 24. Shorncliffe Military Cemetery showing the graves of members of the Chinese Labour Corps (front left).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212058, "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-1989", "page_number": 473, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "佳壁 + 缠 J 4 \n\nPlate 25. One of the Chinese Labour Corps graves at Shorncliffe Military Cemetery.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214993, "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": 89, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "45\n\nwas selected and marked with the so-called Chinese eyes like those on a sea-going junk. It served with the 6th Battalion first as Fly-paper though subsequently it was re-named Fan-tan. The 6th Battalion later adopted the eyes as a regimental symbol. Mr David Fletcher of the Tank Museum at Bovington, in correspondence with the author, was not aware that this symbol was not generally adopted in the Great War. The 6th ultimately converted to Whippets, on which Mr Fletcher had never seen the Eyes symbol. When the 6th Battalion was disbanded after the Great War its various honours and customs were passed to the 4th Battalion which then adopted the Eyes as a Battalion symbol. The 4th Battalion used it on their vehicles from the 1920s and, when they amalgamated with the 1st Battalion RTR in 1993, it was adopted by them. In the 1930s the 6th Battalion was reconstituted and was still around to take part in the 1956 Suez action and never got back their Eyes symbol!\n\nIn the main exhibition hall of the Imperial War Museum in London there is a Mark V tank with \"European\" eyes. These tanks were introduced in the Spring of 1918 and first saw action at Le Hamel in France in July 1918. This tank, Devil [T9171] was believed to have served with B Company of the 4th Battalion of the Tank Corps and was still in service in 1925. This tank, belonging to the 4th Battalion, would have been entitled to the Eyes symbol.\n\nCamps and Recreation\n\nCamps were maintained behind the Front lines, some of the larger being at Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk with the Head Quarters at Noyelles-sur-Mer. Hospitals were at Noyelles-sur-Mer, Arques, Moulle and Calais, with the Shorncliffe Military Hospital at Folkestone also being used for sick and injured Chinese. There was a prison for Chinese at Noyelles.\n\nLabourers died as a result of disease, bombings, gassing and, after the war, when clearing the battlefields and when digging graves, by the many unexploded bombs and grenades. Many also died as a result of the post-war influenza epidemic known as the Spanish Flu. I have seen two photographs, taken of the funeral procession of the German flying ace, Baron Manfred von Richthofen [the Red Baron] at Bertangles cemetery on 22nd April 1918 and amongst the crowd looking over the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215012, "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": 108, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "64\n\nCharles Atkinson of the 171th Company, Labour Corps was attached to the CLC and died on 4th July 1919. Ptc. W. Brophy of the King's (Liverpool) Regiment transferred to the 43rd Company CLC and died on 10th December 1918. Pte. A. J. Davis of the Infantry Labour Company, Devonshire Regiment, transferred to the 116th Company CLC and died on 19th July 1918. Sgt. F. C. Legg of the London Regiment (the London Rifles) transferred to the 9th Company CLC and died on 9th November 1918.\n\nThe gravestones of the Chinese have names carved in English and not in Chinese and, surprisingly, all bear the same epitaph 'Faithful unto Death.' Amongst the CLC graves are those members who were shot at dawn. You Longxi [Yu Lung-hsi in Wade-Giles romanisation] [4976] was court-martialled and convicted of murdering two people and sentenced to death on 28th December 1918, but committed suicide on 29th January 1919 before his sentence could be carried out. On the same date [28th December 1918] Wang Fayou [Wang Fa-yu in Wade-Giles romanisation] [5884] was also sentenced for the same offence as Yu, and was shot on 15th February 1919. Hei Chi-ming [Chei Chi Ming on the headstone] [97170] and Kung Ching-hsing [44340] died on 21st February 1920, after both were convicted for wounding two French prostitutes and the murder of a British Army sergeant at a brothel near Le Havre.\n\nBefore becoming interested in the Chinese Labour Corps and whilst researching, especially, the Victoria Cross holders from my old school, I visited Shorncliffe Military Cemetery, near Folkestone in Kent, where I found six graves of labourers of the CLC, all having died in the Shorncliffe Military Hospital in 1917 and 1918. Folkestone area was used as a staging post with the camps located near Sugar Loaf Hill and Caesar's Camp. These gravestones are much larger, of a different material [slate?] and format to the usual CWGC gravestones. The tops are shaped similar to Dutch house roofs. The wording, however, is similar. Those buried here are Niu Yun-huei [24640], died 2nd July 1917; Chen Te-shan [11916], died 30th August 1917; Liu Ching-yi [37614], died 1st January 1918; Wang Chin-tien [109761], died 4th April 1918; Chiao Pi-cheng [105994] died 13th April 1918 and Yang Chi-chun [72367], died 30th April 1918.\n\nChinese labourers of the CLC are buried elsewhere in England, in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215016, "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": 112, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "68\n\nEmpress of Russia, arriving at Vancouver Island, Canada. During the voyage he discovered two cases of mumps amongst the 2006 Chinese which finally increased to eleven.\n\nDuring their stay in quarantine the Chinese were trained into disciplined coherent bodies. During this time, even though being well treated, food riots nearly broke out. A white cook was sacked for exorbitant charges on bread sold to the coolies, a gold dollar for an 8lb loaf, making a profit of 400%. He also excessively charged for apples and oranges. Two coolies were caught stealing and were publicly caned. On 8th April, his dressers [medical assistants] reported that trouble was brewing over an insult from coolies from Shandong and Tianjin; fighting broke out, being quelled by Stuckey. The leader of the Shandong men was caned publicly, to set an example.\n\nFootwear, issued in China, was proving unsuitable, so British Army boots were issued, which for some became a tradable item.\n\nThey left the quarantine station on 8th April, travelling by train, those with mumps being segregated, to St. Johns and Halifax from where they sailed on the Corsican, in convoy, to Liverpool, where they entrained for Shorncliffe, Kent and then across the channel by ferry to Boulogne and another train journey to the CLC HQ at Noyelle-sur-Mer. The officers returned to the UK to order their kit and uniforms, which cost Stuckey £45 at the Army and Navy Store. He returned to France as Eye Specialist in charge of the Ophthalmic Department of the Chinese General Hospital at Noyelles.\n\nThe Depot at Noyelles was already established as the central examination centre for all Chinese on arrival in France, before their allocation to various Labour Companies.\n\nThe first shipments of Chinese were routed via the Cape, but due to the long journey time and also the shortage of vegetables, leading to scurvy and beriberi, thus making the coolies of little use, the shipment routes were changed via Canada. On arrival in France, the coolies were again medically examined, especially for eye diseases, trachoma and conjunctivitis, usually in the open. Once passed fit they were drafted into various Labour units, consisting of five British officers, 19 British other-ranks and 476 Chinese, and kitted out. Those with eye diseases...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215039, "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": 135, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "SINGAPORE\n\nKranji War Cemetery\n\n1\n\nUNITED KINGDOM\n\nColchester Cemetery, Essex\n\nLiverpool (Anfield) Cemetery, Lancashire\n\n[\n\n3\n\nLlanberis (St Peris) Churchyard, Carnarvonshire\n\nMinster (Thanet) Cemetery, Kent\n\nPlymouth (Efford) Cemetery, Devon\n\n8\n\nSalford (Weaste) Cemetery, Lancashire\n\n1\n\nSheffield (Burngrave) Cemetery, Yorkshire\n\n1\n\nShorncliffe Military Cemetery, Folkestone, Kent\n\n6\n\nSt Pancras Cemetery, Middlesex\n\n1\n\n91\n\nTorquay Cemetery and Extension, Devon\n\nTotal\n\nBibliography\n\nAnonymous\n\nCormack, G.E.\n\n1952\n\n: Evaluation of Chinese Labour at Tank Central Workshops: Unpublished Held at the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.\n\n: War Times in Russia [Unpublished] - held in the Imperial War Museum : London\n\nChielens, P and Putkowski, J : Unquiet Graves : Francis Boutle Publishers: 2000\n\nDirectorate of Labour: Notes for Officers of Labour Companies : General Head Quarters : 2 April 1917\n\nDoe, D.H.\n\nDrage, Charles\n\nFawcett, B.C.\n\n: Pocket Diary [unpublished] held in the Imperial War Museum: London\n\n: Two-Gun Cohen : Jonathan Cape : 1954\n\n: First World War Labour Corps Cemeteries in Flanders: Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society: Vol. 38: 1999-\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]