RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794
383

MONUMENT

TO THE WESTMORELAND REGIMENT THE 55TH REGIMENT OF FOOT

IN

DINGHAI CITY ON ZHOUSHAN ISLAND

KEITH STEVENS AND JENNIFER WELCH

In October 1998 the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society organised a visit for members to Ningbo [Ningpo] and Zhoushan Island [Chusan Island] off the East coast of China in the archipelago of the same name. The object of the visit to Dinghai, the county capital of the archipelago, was to try and follow the course of the British military campaign there during the First and Second China Wars, the First being the so-called Opium War of 1840-1842 and the Second, the Arrow War of 1856-1860, and see if any monuments to the British victory and subsequent occupation remained. In particular we were looking for the military cemetery and tombstones.

The Chinese guide who met us in Ningbo and who was to accompany us to Dinghai was most doubtful about our mission. We did not think she was even aware that the British Army had been on Zhoushan 150 years ago. However by the time our ferry docked at Dinghai, maps relating to the campaign, which had been brought along with us, had been studied in detail, together with an account by the Reverend Wright.

In Dinghai our first call was at the local museum where we collected the Curator. We were most fortunate in that he was interested in the China Wars, and not only knew the accounts - albeit from the Chinese point of view - but was able to lead us to the sites of action, and to the one remaining monument to the British.

During the two China Wars Zhoushan had its moments of glory in history after which both conflicts gradually faded from both British national and Chinese local memories. Between the 5th of July 1840 when the city of Dinghai fell before a British attack for the first time, and the 5th of June 1846 when the British restored Zhoushan to the Chinese, the island was ruled twice by the British with its claim to fame as the first Chinese territory ever to be occupied and controlled
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390
210

With the impending British withdrawal from Hong Kong the stone was brought to England in 1994 and from 1999 to 2003 stood at the entrance to the National Army Museum.

As can be seen above, information has come to light which surprisingly contradicts what was said on the original plaque. The new information panel states that in fact there was no loss of life when the troopship struck a German mine.

The Middlesex Boulder is a loss to Hong Kong but it has to be admitted it was rather neglected as are, sadly, some other military relics. We have been promised a World War Two heritage Trail for some years but at the time of writing it has yet to materialise. Conversely, the Tyndareus Stone in the British National Army Museum is without doubt now being well looked after. More research has been done and, with the new information panel, it now provides an interesting, well documented exhibit.

I am grateful to Dr Alan J Guy MA, DPhil, FRHistS, FRAS, FSA, the present Director of the National Army Museum, for providing information to help me write this article.
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