RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 250 burial ground. Inland Lot 899, on the east by the Pokfulam Road, and West by Cliff facing the Sea, measuring on the North, 4,800 feet, South-West, 3,500 feet, West, 5,100 feet. 69 CAROLINE HILL. Situated on the South side of the Caroline Hill Road and to the South of Caroline Hill, bordered on the North by a Public Road, 400 feet, South, 612 feet, East, 1,275 feet, West, 1,100 feet. In the 1890s, a Eurasian cemetery, generally known as Ho Tung Cemetery before the Second World War and later renamed 'Chiu Yuen Cemetery,' was erected in Mount Davis, with the first grave dated to December 1892.70 The Plague Cemeteries and Trenches The first outbreak of bubonic plague in Hong Kong occurred in May 1894. In less than a month, more than two thousand persons had died. On 6 June, Father Piazzoli, the pro-vicar, wrote: The plague is spreading rapidly with 100 dead each day, though only a section of the Chinese city is infected. The tragedy is terrible. There are streets completely empty: it is estimated that about 40 thousand Chinese have left the island. The harbour too is deserted, the large ships sail at large; the trade is dead and the most horrible misery is growing..." From 1896 on, the plague became almost an annual recurrence. Over the period 1894-1901, about 8,600 people succumbed to the disease.72 Two plague cemeteries were designated at Kennedy Town and Cheung Sha Wan in 1901.74 In addition, a section of ‘Kau Pui Loong Cemetery' (see below) was also referred to as 'Plague Trench'75 (疫症); which was also the case of 'Kai Lung Wan East Cemetery' (also see below).76 Indian / Hindu Cemeteries in Kowloon In 1900, a Hindu Cemetery was authorized in Kowloon, this might have been the result of the plague, as many Indian troops were among the victims of this epidemic disease. This Hindu Cemetery was described as: Page 300 Page 301 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 253 '106 Western side of Cheung Chau Island and about half a mile to the South-West of the village of Cheung Chau and containing about 5.19 acres, was authorized. This was the first cemetery designated on an outlying island and was later extended in 1921.107 108 In 1912, two Chinese cemeteries were authorized. The first one was situated at 'New Kowloon Survey District 1 Lot Nos. 582 and 583,' very close to Sai Yu Shek Cemetery. The cemetery appeared in a 1924 map109 and was marked as 'Fukienese Cemetery.' In another 1940 HKGG Notification, the cemetery was also referred to as 'Fukienese Cemetery.' The second cemetery appointed, a Christian cemetery, was 'to be known as the Tsun Wan Christian Cemetery situate and being near Tsun Wan in Demarcation District No. 453 in the New Territories in the Colony of Hongkong, containing an area of 10,000 square feet,'111 In the following year, a site 'to be known as the Hau Pui Loong Cemetery situate and being near Hau Pui Loong in Kowloon in the Colony of Hongkong containing an area of about 19 acres' was appointed.112 The Chinese Permanent Cemetery in Aberdeen Although a number of Chinese cemeteries were authorized and appointed since the 1870s, these cemeteries were not intended for the upper and wealthier classes. By the early 20th century, the absence of what were considered proper and decent sites for these Chinese who wished to settle in Hong Kong was apparent. In 1901, the Cemeteries Committee of the Sanitary Board moved to set apart a piece of hillside between the Aberdeen Channel and Deep Water Bay for wealthy Chinese as a burial ground.113 However, for some reason, eventually this site was not appointed. Eight years later, the issue was presented again to the Sanitary Board by Lau Chu-pak, a member of the Board and one of the most prominent members of the Chinese community in the Colony,114 Lau said: The better class of Chinese who had made Hong Kong their permanent home had not a decent cemetery in which to bury their dead, and the Chinese had no control on what were called Chinese Cemeteries. These cemeteries were simply tracts of barren land set apart by the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 262 Cemetery. Tsun Wan Christian Cemetery Tsuen Wan 1912 Hau Pui Loong Cemetery Ma Tau Wat 1913 Removal of last graves was ordered 1948. *Chinese Permanent Cemetery Ap Lei Chau Cemetery Aberdeen Ap Lei Chau 1913 1014 Removal of all urns was ordered 1949. Chinese Christian Cemetery New Kowloon 1919 Inland Lot No. 5 Location not known. Kowloon Cemeteries Ho Man Tin 1921 Cemeteries were split into *Race Course Fire Memorial and Cemetery So Kon Po four 1930. Completed 1922. Christian Chinese Cemetery Stanley 1924 *New Kowloon Cemetery No. 2 Ngau Chi Wan 1928 Erected for the Little Sisters of the Poor. *Castle Peak Christian Cemetery Castle Peak Earliest graves: 1928 Roman Catholic Cemetery Kowloon Cemetery No. I Ho Man Tin 1930 Ho Man Tin 1930 Erected for European Protestants. Kowloon Cemetery No. 2 Ho Man Tin 1930 Erected for Chinese. Kowloon Cemetery No. 3 *New Kowloon Cemetery No. 5 *Song Him Tong Sung Chan Wui Kei Tuk Kau Fan Cheung Ho Man Tin 1930 Erected for Muslims. Diamond Hill 1931 Fan Ling 1931 *Cheung Chau Chinese Christian Cemetery Cheung Chau 1931 *Tao Fung Shan Christian Cemetery Sha Tin Earliest graves: 1931 *Tai O Cemetery Tai O 1932 New Stanley Cemetery Stanley 1933 New Kowloon Cemetery No. 6 Shek Kip Mei 1933 Intended for European Protestants, details not known. *Sai Kung Catholic Cemetery *Chinese Permanent Cemetery *New Kowloon Cemetery No. 7 Sai Kung Tsuen Wan Hammer Hill 1934 1935 1935 Extension was approved 1941, Extension might have been renamed *Hammer Hill Urn Cemetery Hammer Hill 1938 New Kowloon Cemetery No. 8 later. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 274 The others were Ngau Tau Kok, Sai Cho Wan and Lei Yue Mun. All four villages were Hakka stone-cutters' settlements, all could at least be dated back to early and mid-19th century. 100 HKGG Notification 3 of 4th January 1907. 104 The cemetery had also been referred to as 'X' in some government notices, e.g., HKGG Notice 420 of 18th July 1924. This should be a huge cemetery as in 1939 alone, there were 3,900 interments, see Annual Report of the Chairman Urban Council Hong Kong for the year 1939, p. M(1)17. 105 HKGG Notification 752 of 15th November 1907. Removal of all the urns in this cemetery was ordered in 1949, see HKGG Notice 936 of 30th September 1949. 106 HKGG Notification 337 of 15th May 1908. 107 HKGG Notice 102 of 18th March 1921. 108 HKGG Notification 3 of 12 January 1912. The location of this cemetery was near to the present junction of Junction Road and Heng Lam Street. 10 Empson, p. 181. 111 HKGG Notice 91 of 26th January 1940. This boundary of the cemetery can be found in the AIR 2/463 map of c. 1930, 112 HGKK Notification 337 of 15th November 1912. 113 HKGG Notification 88 of 28th March 1913. This cemetery was closed in 1921, see HKGG Notice 540 of 23 December 1921. Removal of some graves in this cemetery was ordered between 1924 and 1926 for the laying out of roads and building sites, see HKGG Notices 367 of 20 June and 711 of 19th December 1924, Notice 419 of 17 July 1925, and Notice 7 of 8th January 1926. All graves and urns were ordered to be removed in 1948, see HKGG Notice 1072 of 19th November 1948. The location and boundary of this cemetery is shown in a 1920 map, CO1047/455, as kept in the PRO at Kew. Two headstones in memory of two members of the Chinese Labour Corps who were sent to and died in Europe during the First World War are to be found in the Stanley Military Cemetery. It is inscribed on the headstones that they were originally buried at Kau Pui Loong (Lung) Cemetery. ================================================================================