[
    {
        "id": 210683,
        "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-1986",
        "page_number": 34,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "17\n\nJOHN JOSEPH FRANCIS, CITIZEN OF HONG KONG, A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\nWALTER GREENWOOD\n\nV.H.G. Jarret writing about Francis in the South China Morning Post in the 1930s commented \"It seems strange that so well known a man should not be commemorated in any way”. When one considers the number of streets and roads in Hong Kong named after less prominent Government officials and businessmen the force of that comment will, it is hoped, be appreciated by the end of this essay.\n\nFrancis was born in Dublin in 1839, the eldest son of William Francis Aylward, an Inspector of Irish National Schools, and\n\nMr. Walter Greenwood J.P., M.A. (Cantab.), Barrister of Gray's Inn and the North Eastern Circuit, a Permanent Magistrate in Hong Kong\n\nAUTHOR'S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:\n\nThis essay was hurriedly researched and written in snatched hours and does not claim to be comprehensive, much less to do justice to Francis. I hope it may lead to interest in his life and career and I should be grateful if anyone who finds new information about him would send it to me at 26, Great Bounds Drive, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4OTR. It is based mainly on skimming through newspapers and dipping into the standard histories of Hong Kong. I have also received generous help from many quarters. First I should like to acknowledge my gratitude to the staff of the Hong Kong Public Records Office for their ever friendly and willing help; my thanks go also to the staff of the Supreme Court Registry and University Library, the Secretaries of the Bar Association, the Law Society, the Jockey Club and the Volunteers, Mrs. Lisa Chee, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Po Leung Kuk, Fathers Naylor, Pagani and Pittavino (for searching church records), Mr. Michael Clancy (for information about “Stonyhurst”), Mr. Carl Smith (for information about Francis' marriages) and Mr. Colin West (for arranging the cleaning of Francis' tombstone) in Hong Kong; the Parish Priest of All Saints Church, Borella, Colombo; Father Turner of Stonyhurst College; the staff of the Public Records Office, Genealogical Office and Public Registry in Dublin; Mr. Julian Walton of Dublin and Waterford (for supplying me with material about the Aylward family which he also presented to Dr. Ken Smith of South Africa for use in his biography of Alfred Aylward); the Editor of the Irish Ancestor, the staff of the Public Record Office, Royal Artillery Institution, University and Crown Agents in London; Mrs. Theresa Thom, Librarian of Gray's Inn; Mr. Leo D'Almada Q.C. in Portugal; Dr. Walter Mautsch in Germany; Mr. Nigel Osner in London; Pamela and Eric Russ in Bournemouth; my wife (for her patience whilst I practised my drafts on her); and Mrs. Mary Whitticase for her great kindness in typing my manuscript.\n\nCopyright Walter Greenwood 1986.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215910,
        "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": 209,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "143\n\nUntil recently the journals have been housed in the RAS collection in the City Hall Library. They are part of the 4,000 volumes of publications — including very rare books — on Asian studies, bought by or donated to the Society. Members can borrow the books and the public is invited to use them for reference. The collection now sits in the new Central Library in Causeway Bay, which opened in May 2001.\n\nWaters has published extensively in the journal and contributed to other publications by the RAS, including a book on Yau Ma Tei.\n\n\"I had been interested in local history all my life. When I was a child in England, when my father or some others talked about local history, my ears used to prick up straight away and I used to listen. And as a rule, I can remember it all.\"\n\n**\n\nWaters has done best financially with a series of textbooks for learning technical English but one publication that may be most impressive, is a paper for his Ph.D., which he got at the age of 65 from Loughborough University in the United Kingdom.\n\n\"I wanted a challenge and it was a challenge, and I overcame the challenge. I can remember a young Chinese friend of mine saying... when you get to the age of 30 you can't study, you can't concentrate... Well, I mean I could show him that's rubbish. I can concentrate, I can still concentrate.\"\n\nBeyond the Metropolis...\n\nThe first speaker at the 40th anniversary conference is Dr. Patrick Hase. He would become Society president in three months.\n\nHase is a stocky man, with wavy brown hair. A bit of grey around the temples hints at his age. His talk is on Sha Tin in the New Territories and the early development of the new town.\n\nHistorical slides flash on screen from way before the new town was established, and more slides chronicling the development of the area follow, one by one. There's a lot of interesting history being shared but the dimmed lights and such an early hour has put a number of the audience into a dream state...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
        "rank": 0
    }
]