RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 69 were isolated for intensive treatment, and light work. Some worked in the Crecy forest, at Blanches Hetres, cutting timber for trenches and fascines for the roads, etc.; others worked nearer the camp. Originally the Hospital compound surrounded by a barbed wire fence, consisted of eight triple marquees, each with 50 beds. Stuckey examined up to 500 coolies each day. In mid-June, Dr. Earnest Peill, also of the LMS China, was appointed Registrar and Surgeon and O.C. Chinese Personnel, the latter post to deal with all the troubles of the Chinese, rosters and employing staff. In December 1917, there were almost 200 Chinese on the Hospital staff. Under the C.O., Major Gray [formerly of the Peking Legation], the staff functioned efficiently, necessitating expansion of the Hospital from 300 beds to 1,040 beds within six months, capable of inspecting up to 1500 coolies per day. From bringing water from a pool it now had a well and pump, and shortly electricity would be installed. Stuckey was appointed Treasurer for any money the staff wished to deposit with him for safekeeping, of which he was the President, Cashier, ledger keeper, etc. Such money was utilised to buy bonds earning 5% over six months. The Hospital received many visitors including Col. Lister and Maj. Cunningham, the British Army's ophthalmic specialists, General Tang of the Chinese HQ Staff and doctors from surrounding hospitals. It appeared that the death rate was high for a unit whose contract specified that they should not work on any kind of military operation. After China declared war on Germany on 14th March 1917, this clause was not so strictly observed. The British military authorities ordered that the Chinese must be buried in their own plot and not near a Hindu or a Christian plot, in a box or coffin. The cemetery at Noyelles-sur-Mer was selected by the Chinese for its fengshui [on a slope facing a small stream]. It was the Orderly Officer's duty to conduct the burial service, seeing that a party of patients attended and that they returned safely to the Hospital. One returning party raided a carrot field and another raided a turnip field, pulled up and cut off and replaced the heads of the turnips. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 247 cemetery could be traced. The cemetery was probably created for the early Muslim military community. It was in the 1880s that a Hindu Cemetery was founded in Happy Valley, with the earliest graves dated to 1888.47 There had also been a small French Mission Cemetery erected in Pokfulam near the Bethanie, a retreat for retired or sick French Fathers (Mission Étrangères), in the later part of the 19th century; however, further details regarding the erection of this cemetery are not known yet.48 Chinese Cemeteries in the 19th Century A great influx of Chinese immigrants occurred soon after the British arrived in Hong Kong, though the growth was uneven. By the 1850s, in the wake of massive upheavals as the Tai Ping forces swept through wide areas of southern and central China, the Chinese population of Hong Kong grew rapidly. From 1853-1855, the numbers rose from 39,017 to 72,607.49 Between the 1860s and the 1880s, the population steadily increased and Hong Kong was subjected to serious overcrowding. In 1865, the population totalled 125,504 and in 1881 the number was 160,404. During this period, public health emerged as one of the main problems. Before 1856, burial grounds for the Chinese had not been properly regulated. Not unexpectedly, Chinese burials were not permitted in the Colonial Cemetery in the early days,51 they were not even allowed to enter the cemetery at least until 1885.52 A direct result of the increase of population and the corresponding increase in mortality among the Chinese was the studding of all hillsides and slopes on the island with graves, which caused ‘certain Nuisances which the Laws hitherto in force have failed effectually to prevent.’53 54 One such popular Chinese burial ground was located on the west of the Tai Ping Shan district, along a certain Fan Mo or Cemetery Street,5 upon which the Tung Wah Hospital was later to be built. The surveyor general had the following entry in his report in 1856, probably referring to the burial ground at Fan Mo Street: ================================================================================ 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 261 Chinese Christian Cemetery Pokfulam 1882 Kaulung Cemetery Ma Tau Wai 1885 Later renamed Ma Tau Wai Cemetery, removal of graves ordered 1925. Shaukiwan Cemetery Chai Wan 1885 Sheko Cemetery Shek O 1885 Closed 1926. Stanley Cemetery Stanley 1885 Removal of graves ordered 1933. Aberdeen Cemetery Hindu Cemetery Aberdeen 1885 Happy Valley First graves: 1888 Mount Davis Chinese Cemetery Mount Davis 1891 Removal of all graves and urns ordered 1949. Caroline Hill Cemetery *Chiu Yuen Cemetery Caroline Hill 1891 Pokfulam Earliest graves: 1892. Plague Cemetery Town 1901 Plague Cemetery Cheung Sha Wan 1901 Hindu Cemetery King's Park 1900 Indian Cemetery Ho Man Tin Closed 1927. Details not known. Sai Yu Shek Cemetery Lo Fu Ngam 1903 Renamed New Kowloon Sai Yu Shek (Christian) Cemetery Po Kong Po Cemetery Lo Fu Ngam Po Kong *Chinese Christian Cemetery (New Kowloon Cemetery No.1) Sham Shui Po Cemetery Kowloon City 1904 Cemetery No.4 1930. Details not known. Closed in 1903. Details not known. Sham Shui Po 1904 Kowloon Tong Cemetery Tai Hang Tung Christian Chinese Cemetery, Kowloon Tong Tai Hang Tung Kai Lung Wan Cemetery Pokfulam 1907 Tseung Loong Tin Removal of graves ordered 1923. In existence 1920. Removal of graves and urns ordered 1949. Early history not known. Removal of graves and urns ordered 1950. Early history not known. A plot of land had been in use as cemetery prior to 1907. Kai Lung Wan East Cemetery Fukienese Cemetery Cha Kwo Ling 1907 Pokfulam 1907 Removal of all urns was ordered 1949. Lo Fu Ngam 1912 Adjacent to Sai Yu Shek ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 272 Man Tin Village before Argyle Street was laid out in the 1920s. This Indian cemetery should therefore be different from the Hindu Cemetery. 79 HKGG Notice 300 of 20th May 1927. The location and boundary of this cemetery is shown on the CO1047/455 map of 1920. 80 Site of present Lok Fu / Wang Tau Hom area. * HKGG Notification 334 of 22nd May 1903. In 1923, the Inland Lot No. 9 section of this cemetery was closed and removal of some graves was ordered for the laying out of roads and building sites, see HKGG Notice 7 of 5th January and Notice 208 of 4th May 1923. Other removals were ordered in 1927 and 1929, see HKGG Notices 286 of 13th May 1927 and 191 of 19 April 1929. In 1949, removal of all graves in the 'old' section of this cemetery was ordered, see HKGG Notice 936 of 30th September 1949. Sai Yu Shek Cemetery was later renamed as New Kowloon Cemetery No.4 in 1930, see below. 82 Sai Yu Shek Cemetery and Sai Yu Shek (Christian) Cemetery had separate burial entries in the Administrative Reports of the 1910s and 1920s. *The village was located about the present site of the 7-storey resettled factory blocks in San Po Kong District. 84 是但居士(譚榮光)(1952),華甲回憶錄,privately published, p. 4. 85 All the graves in Po Kong Po Cemetery were ordered to be removed in 1914, see HKGG Notices 448 of 13th November 1914, 86 HKGG Notification 234 of 31st March 1904. 87 HKGG Notice 963 of 10 December 1947. ** The cemetery was closed temporarily in 1925 and 1926, see HKGG Notices 402 of 10th July 1925 and Notice 325 of 18th June 1926. 89 HKGG Notice 410 of 10 July 1925. 90 HKGG Notification 581 of 19th August 1904. All graves in this cemetery were ordered to be removed in 1923 for the laying out of roads and building sites, see HKGG Notices 162 of 13th April and 462 of 26th October 1923. ================================================================================