RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 THE PAPER CHASE 13 study I am down in cellars or up in attics ransacking their contents for yet more documents. And when I light upon them—especially on the choicer specimens—I probably make delighted chuckling sounds in my throat like Ben Gunn discovering a cheese. And what is an archives repository like? Well, externally, to fit the popular conception of things archival, it ought to be neo-gothic in style, rather like a 19th century English provincial railway station. Internally, though, and my hostess would be much certain of this, it would look more like a derelict warehouse, its floors piled with books and papers, evidently in the utmost confusion and, of course, covered with a thick mantle of dust (Dust is always an important feature in the myths about us). And, strangely enough, considering the archivist's obsessive love for fascinating old documents, they would be swarming with vermin. Grotesque as it is, this image of the archivist and his work is all too common. In this regard we carry a burden not unlike the one which archaeologists once laboured under. Was it so long ago that the archaeologist was invariably depicted, and thought of, as a spindly, eccentric looking apparition, clad in a solar topee, bush jacket and Bombay bloomers, devoted to all things arcane, and eternally and promiscuously ferreting in the sand for relics of the past—any relics? Old films of the “Mummy's Curse” variety usually reflected this impression of him perfectly. But thanks initially to the unwitting cooperation of Tut Ankh Amen and to the literary efforts of people like Leonard Wooley and Sir Mortimer Wheeler, the archaeologist has sloughed off most of his comic attributes these days and emerged as a familiar and even heroic figure, just as anthropologists are doing through the influence of writers like Thor Heyerdahl. Shall archivists produce their Wooleys and Wheelers to introduce the real archivist and his profession to the public? I fear not. Our profession is eminently free from danger—unless being caught between two stacks of mobile shelving can be thought of as dangerous—and however fascinating archival work may be for archivists themselves one has to admit that it is singularly lacking in the sort of features which make exciting reading for the man in the street. There will never be a best-seller about archivology, and if popular misconceptions about us are ever to be dispelled it will probably come about only through archivists persistently reading papers like this one to captive audiences. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 220 CARL T. SMITH established brothels, a gambling hall, opium divans, a temple, his family house and the Theatre. As the location and arrangements of Acqui's Theatre were not very satisfactory, there was a movement to build something more suitable. Immediately after the first performance of the Amateurs, it was announced that plans for a new theatre were under consideration. The China Mail, 8 January 1846, gave its full support: We are glad to learn there is at length a fair prospect of a Theatre being erected in Hong Kong. The project was suggested last year, and as it not only met with general approbation from the public, but received the sanction of His Excellency and the support of the civil and military servants of the Government, it is rather inexplicable how it was suffered to drop. We are indebted, we believe, to the same parties who lately favoured the public with an amateur performance in the Lower Bazaar, for taking the matter up again, and they seem now to have begun very properly by first testing the feelings of the middle classes upon the very important point of subscriptions. We are assured that the amount already subscribed for is more than half what will be required to erect a spacious building, adapted alike for the purposes of a Theatre and a Ballroom, or a hall for public meetings. With some proofs of support from the community at large, we trust the Governor's patronage will be continued, and the merchants and official gentlemen will take the matter up in good earnest, and complete what has already been auspiciously begun. When the plans are sufficiently matured we would suggest the propriety of bringing them before the public in a well-defined shape, by circular, or advertisement in the public papers. For this purpose our columns will be at the service of the committee gratuitously. A meeting to enlist shareholders was held at the house of Leonard Just, a watchmaker, in February 1846. The eventual outcome of the meeting was the erection of the Victoria Theatre on the hill behind the Hong Kong Club. The lot was up Wyndham Street somewhat to the south of Wellington Street. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 108 HOPPER, F Not known HORWITZ, Bernard 13.3.1883 HORWITZ, Bernard 12.3.1882 HOWELL, David 25.7.1936 HOWELL, Gerhard Not known HOWELL, Harry 29.11.1927 HUBE, Mrs Ida 28.11.1947 HUBER, Johannes 4.10.1903 HUELS, H N 6.1.1878 HUGHES, John Howard 27.6.1939 HUNTER, Alex Russell 25.11.1919 HUNTER, Gilzean Not known HUNTER, Mrs Sophia 23.1.1949 HULK, F H Not known HUNTER, John 2.7.1962 HUNTINGDON, William D 12.3.1869 HURST, Ethel 2.8.1907 HUXLEY, Stanley 16.5.1907 JACOBSON, Paul 16.4.1892 JANSEN, E 11.2.1889 JOHNSON, Thomas 20.7.1910 JOHNSTON, William 5.6.1900 JONES, Mrs 26.12.1913 JONES, J H 4.12.1918 JONES, Thomas 5.5.1876 JONES, Thomas 9.10.1898 JORGENSEN, Captain 30.9.1941 JOST, Adolf Ferdinand Fredrich 3.12.1869 JUNKER, CE 11.1903 KAEHNE, Alice 30.7.1903 KALUS, Johannes 30.9.1907 KANZLER, Aug. Gotthelf Moritz 19.3.1892 KAPPELMEIER, Fritz Not known KAY, Anthony Taylor Not known KELLY, Robert Kerr 22.11.1895 KARL, Friedrich 11.12.1936 KELLER, Daisy 4.2.1950 KELLER, ... 2.7.1931 KENDRICK, S M 10.7.1966 KENNEDY, SC 17.3.1908 KIENE, Juana 14.8.1912 KILLMAN, JW 7.1902 KLEMME, CHF Wilhelm 14.11.1878 KNUDSEN, A 21.4.1927 KOPSIDAKIS, Dimitrios 27.1.1907 KRAFT, Peter 25.11.1965 KRUEGER, Johann Christian 10.5.1930 KYBURZ, I A Jacob 24.5.1901 KYBURZ, Paul Henry 26.8.1943 LAACHMANN, Edward 23.3.1903 LABHART, Joh. Conrad 28.3.1884 LACHENAL, Jones 18.7.1887 LAFFERTY, Michael J Louis 23.10.1892 LARDETT, Jean 17.3.1904 LEA, Edward Not known LE BRETON, Leonard 24.2.1945 LEHNERT, Oswald 20.4.1925 LEVY, Adolf 22.1.1891 LEVY, Charles 13.6.1888 LEVY, S 31.10.1916 LISBETH? (child) 18.4.1882 LLOYD, James 9.5.1890 LOCKHEAD, Herbert S Lawrence 3.11.1888 LOEWENSTEIN-WERTHEIM-FREUDENBERG, Prince Ludwig zu 18.9.1901 LUBBERS, H 26.3.1899 LUTZ, Hans Richard 10.11.1882 LUYENDYK, Mary Williamson 17.7.1876 MACGAVIN, William 26.11.1945 MACKENDRICK, Charles D T 28.11.1943 MACLEOD, John 17.3.1908 MACLEOD, John T Shannon Not known MCDONALD, James B 6.9.1917 MCEWEN, Gerald Wallace 1.5.1937 MCGREGOR, Arthur Robert 1.8.1939 MCINTOSH, Alexander John 10.8.1881 7.5.1912 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 381 THE COLOURFUL DOUGLAS LAPRAIK (1818-1869) PETER HANSELL A year or more ago I purchased what appeared to be an interesting clock at an auction of the residue of the estate of an elderly spinster lady domiciled in the UK, but without any surviving relatives. My instant reaction to the likely function of this clock was that it had been used or owned by a merchant traveller or campaigner and so it turned out to be. Similar in substantive construction to a ship's chronometer, but with a lever escapement, it had been lovingly embellished with a gilt oriental bow and strut at some later date and was contained in a mahogany travelling case, which could be laid flat, carried by a flush brass handle, or hung from a concealed bracket. The silvered dial is cursively engraved Douglas Lapraik, Hong Kong. Having no provenance from the previous owner, my researches had to begin. Many residents of Hong Kong will know the legend of Douglas Lapraik, but it is worth paraphrasing here. He left Scotland as 'a young businessman' in 1839 at the age of 21 in order to seek further fortunes in the Far East. He spent some time in Macao before moving to Hong Kong, which had recently become a British Dependency. Before arrival there in 1842 in somewhat straitened circumstances he had become acquainted with a fellow ex-patriot and clockmaker, Leonard Just, to whom he became apprenticed. There were several Justs who were devoted to the clock making industry, but Leonard had been supplying clocks and watches to the Chinese market before he emigrated from Scotland a little earlier. His son Leonard Just Junior was listed as an apprentice along with Lapraik. During this time, Douglas Lapraik must have become acquainted with numerous mariners, their ships and their clocks, which he undoubtedly repaired. After a few years he is recorded as setting up his own clock making business, which, after his final departure from Hong Kong, became "Falconer Jewellers', a trading name that survives to this day. Perhaps a more important development was that pari passu with this horological activity he became commercially interested in ships and shipping, the building of docks and warehouses and the establishment of a very successful shipping line chiefly concerned with ================================================================================