[
    {
        "id": 209964,
        "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": 223,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "201\n\nThere were two museums which I intended to visit but as my daughter's birth day approached the time available for such luxuries declined.\n\nI wrote to the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment museum, at Lichfield, Staffordshire, and received a very helpful reply. The 98th Regiment, later the 2nd North Staffords, served in the First China War and in Hong Kong.\n\nOn display at the museum are a \"soldier's watercolour\" in the uniform of the period c1840-50. \"This also shows a sentry box and the Colours and seems intended to indicate a coastal location. The 'China Dragon' is on the colour and the painting could well relate to the Regiment's subsequent service in Hong Kong (1842-45)\".\n\nThere is an officers' Shako plate (1829-44), an officers' shoulder belt plate, an officers' sword belt clasp (1826-55) and \"two buttons, a shoulder numeral and a few other relics of the period, subsequently dug up in Hong Kong\".\n\nThe other museum which I missed was that of the Royal Berkshire Museum, successors to the 49th Regiment, in Salisbury, Wiltshire.\n\nMy experience in 1983 proved that visitors to England should make a point of calling in at virtually any regimental or army museum that they pass. What may be judged an unimportant relic against the span of centuries of regimental history may be viewed quite differently from a Hong Kong point of view.\n\nNot army, but equally interesting, is the National Railway Museum, in York, which might seem an unlikely place to search for souvenirs of China--but it houses what is probably the biggest one in Britain. There, sparkling and gleaming, is a mighty Chinese National Railways Class KF 4-8-4 locomotive. The 93-foot long behemoth was built in the mid-1930s at the Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows, to haul 600-ton trains over the mountainous central section of the Canton-Hankow Railway. After 43 years in service the locomotive was presented to the museum by China and it left Shanghai for England in 1981. The sheer size of this monster makes it stand out and it looked to me far and away the biggest in the extensive collection. The engine weighs in at 114.9 tons with a 77-ton tender.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214444,
        "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": 302,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "269\n\nare formed in stepped voussoirs. The first floor verandah is divided into bays by rusticated granite pillars which support the entablature and parapet wall to the roof. Ground and first floor verandah balustrades consist of heavy moulded copings on pierced and mortised infill panels with heavy plinths supported on moulded horizontal cornices emphasizing the storey heights. Flights of entrance steps lead up to the ground floor verandahs on both sides. The 1935 addition comprising the front entrance, dining room, and anteroom is built in similar style but is three storeys in height due to the sloping ground. There is a five-centred elliptical arch and a panel with the Royal coat of arms over the main entrance. On the parapet wall above there is a plaque engraved '1935.' Internally there are several interesting fireplace surrounds and period joinery but little else of architectural interest. Evidence in the P.R.O. indicates that the present infill panels to the verandahs may not be original and that the roof originally was pitched with gable ends and had several large chimney stacks projecting above the ridge. Part of the original roof still remains. The Officers' Mess is a Grade 2 historical building.\n\nThe last British Army Units at the barracks were 28 Squadron, the Gurkha Transport Regiment, also 247 Gurkha Signal Squadron. The United Services Recreation Club occupied part of the site, and 10 Intelligence and Security Company occupied the old Colony Club building, having moved in on the handover of their former site, Number 3 Camp, Argyle Street, to the Hong Kong Government in 1977. Prior to occupation by the Gurkhas, the barracks were usually occupied by British infantry battalions. In recent years occupying British units have included the First Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers (1967), First Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers (1969/71), First Battalion The Black Watch (1971/73), and the First Battalion The Royal Hampshire Regiment (1974/76). The 25th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, is also recorded at Gun Club in 1948. Some of the earliest troops to be stationed in Kowloon were the 99th Regiment (now the Second Wiltshires) and the Second Royal Welch Fusiliers, some of whom were quartered at Gun Club upon their arrival on January 13, 1899. Other Kowloon based units included the 91st Argylls (1888), First Battalion The King's Shropshire Light Infantry (1892) and the First Battalion the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    }
]