RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 192 NOTES AND QUERIES eleven players representing China at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936 were Tai Hang men, including the team captain. Near Tai Hang is the Lin Fa Kung (E), a temple of unusual shape which is unique in Hong Kong and the New Territories. This temple, formerly like Tai Hang situated on the seashore, is over one hundred years old in its present form. The construction date over the entrance is the mid winter months of the second year of the Tung Chi reign i.e. 11 December 1863-8 January 1864. Old Main Street, Shau Kei Wan (*****) For this section of the visit a shortened version of the extended programme notes now at pp. 183-188 was provided. It is not repeated here. Chai Wan Military Cemetery Opened in 1947, this cemetery, which is managed by the Imperial War Graves Commission, contains 1,558 graves, mainly those of officers and men killed during the Defence of Hong Kong against the Japanese in 1941.* Set high on a once remote hillside in rural surroundings, it now overlooks a heavily populated resettlement estate and industrial area. Nearby is the New Military Cemetery and the Chinese Permanent Cemetery, Cape Collinson, with its 8,027 graves set in 20.5 acres of hillside administered by a Board of Management: also the new Crematorium. Stanley Fort This peninsula was set aside for military use in the 1930s and the barracks date from then. The parade ground was formerly the site of the village of Wong Ma Kok (⇓⇓) from which the peninsula takes its Chinese name. The inhabitants were removed to Stanley Village where a row of red-brick houses (still standing) was built for them by the Hong Kong Government. This village was the scene of the spectacular murder of two British officers in 1849 (see John Luff's book The Hong Kong Story (Hong Kong, South China Morning Post, 1959) chapter 8). * Information provided by the Urban Services Department, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 259 2. Hong Kong No.2A, piece of Botanical and Forestry Department ground at the junction of Kennedy Road and Garden Road 163 3. Hong Kong No.2B, piece of Botanical and Forestry Department ground at junction of Upper Albert Road and Albany Road, 164 4. Old Government Civil Hospital Site 165 (2,631), open space behind the Old Government Civil Hospital. 166 5. Queen Mary Hospital Site (101), piece of ground on the east side of Pokfulam Road near the Maison de Nazareth. 167 6. Aberdeen Site (98), on the north side of Island Road, 100 yards from the Aberdeen Industrial School, 169 7. Island Road, 170 Shaukiwan Site (363), slopes on side of Island Road near its junction with Shaukiwan Road. 171 Figures in bracket show the number of grave exhumations for reburial between April 1948 and March 1949. 172 The remains in these emergency cemeteries were reburied in the New Kowloon Cemetery No.8 (Diamond Hill Urn Cemetery). Early Post-War Cemeteries The first cemetery authorized after the Second World War in 1947 was a military cemetery for the burial of the servicemen who had died in the war. It was initially known as the 'Sai Wan Military Cemetery,' 173 which contained about 5.71 acres, situated East of Chai Wan Cemetery 174 and the extension thereof and to the North of the road serving Sai Wan and Cape Collinson in the Colony of Hong Kong.' 175 This was followed by a 'Prisons Cemetery' in the same year, which was 'being an enclosure of about 5,000 square feet lying 250 yards to the South of St. Stephen's College Preparatory School Building at Stanley,' 176 It was recorded that as early as 1940, the government had already intended to transfer the government cemeteries for Chinese from the urban area to new sites in the New Territories. However, due to the... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 260 Japanese invasion, steps could not be taken until after the war. 177 178 In July 1949 the first of such cemeteries, the Sandy Ridge (Urn) Cemetery near Lo Wu was approved, and burials commenced on 9th April 1950. In the financial year of 1950-51, the number of reburials (including temporary storage awaiting cremation) at Sandy Ridge (Urn) Cemetery was as high as 65,558. 180 181 SE This was followed by the commissioning of the most important post-war cemetery, the Wo Hop Shek Cemetery, which was authorized on 27th February 1950. Burials in this cemetery commenced on 1 December in the same year. The cemetery was served by a branch of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, and coffins could be transported to the cemetery by railway hearse. In the financial year of 1951-52, 16,054 coffins were transported to the cemetery by the railway hearse. 182 Appendix 1 Name of Cemetery Name of Cemetery Location Year Remarks Protestant Burial Ground Wan Chai 1841 Closed 1845, last graves removed 1889 Catholic Burial Ground Wan Chai 1842 *Colonial/Hong Kong Cemetery Happy Valley 1845 *Stanley Cemetery Stanley Earliest graves: 1843. Closed c. 1870, re-opened during the war. Renamed Stanley Military Cemetery after WWII. West Point Burial Ground St. Michael Catholic Cemetery Happy Valley 1848 *Parsee/Zoroastrian Cemetery Happy Valley 1852 *Jewish Cemetery Mid-Levels 1857 Appeared in a 1863 map. Details not known. Muslim/Mohammedan Cemetery Happy Valley Appeared by 1850s. Details not known. *Muslim/Mohammedan Cemetery Po Yan Street (Cemetery Street) 1870 Chinese Burial Ground Yau Ma Tei 1871 Chinese Cemetery Mount Davis 1882 Chinese Christian Cemetery Chai Wan 1882 183 184 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 279 167 HKGG Notice 725 of 16th September 1947. 168 Present Wong Chuk Hang Road. 169 HKGG Notice 721 of 16th September 1947. 170 Present Chai Wan Road. 171 HKGG Notice 720 of 16th September 1947. 172 Report of the Urban Council and Sanitary Department for the financial year 1st April, 1948-31st March, 1949, p. 29. 173 The cemetery was later renamed 'Sai Wan War Cemetery'. This cemetery was and still is managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. There is another military cemetery located just below Sai Wan War Cemetery. Established in 1967, the new military cemetery is not related to Sai Wan War Cemetery, nor the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. 174 This was the pre-war Chai Wan Cemetery, not to be confused with those established in the area in the early 1960s. 175 HKGG Notice 214 of 13th March 1947. 176 HKGG Notice 381 of 13 May 1947. 177 Annual Departmental Report by the Chairman of the Urban Council and Head of the Sanitary Department for the financial year 1950-51, p. 11. 178 Later regazetted as Sandy Ridge Cemetery and Sandy Ridge (Urn) Cemetery in 1950. 179 Annual Report by the Chairman of the Urban Council and Head of the Sanitary Department for the year ended the 31st March, 1950, p. 8. 180 Annual Departmental Report by the Chairman of the Urban Council and Head of the Sanitary Department for the financial year 1950-51, p. 38. 181 Annual Report by the Chairman of the Urban Council and Head of the Sanitary Department for the year ended the 31st March, 1950, p. 8. ================================================================================