Patricia O'Sullivan's Blog

I've just come across a nice little story about one of the three Police Constable O'Sullivans who was in the HKP in October 1897, Edmund, Patrick and Mortimor. The newspaper report doesn't identify which man ... well, read it here:The Hongkong Telegraph writer may attribute the constable's buoyancy to his being from Cork ... but Newmarket is about 30 miles from the nearest coast. So I consulted the oracle of all things historic in Newmarket, Raymond O'Sullivan (see the post about Island Wood) and he's pointed out that it was very unusual for farm boys to be able to swim. But Raymond recalled from his younger days (many decades after the PC O'Sullivans were boys, of course) there being a swimming hole in the section of the Glenlara River that runs through the Curraduff farm, from where Edmund hailed. And by 1897 he had been two years in Hong Kong, and maybe had taken the opportunity to improve on his swimming skills on the sandy southern beaches. What I love is the image of the constable, dripping though he might be, doggedly hunting out the sampan owner's licence number and arresting the man. They made them tough in Newmarket!

100 years ago today the news of the Armistice was trickling through to Hong Kong ... telegrams were received, the papers published one page stop press editions in the afternoon and celebrations commenced.Meanwhile, my grandfather, Patrick O'Sullivan was getting on with the ordinary business of being a Police Inspector.....(The Watsons (chemists) mentioned here started in 1841 in Hong Kong and is a huge multinational firm today)

An interesting weekend - especially intrigued about the Civil Affairs Units towards the end of WWII - British police often perilously near to the front line, re-establishing as much of a functioning society as possible in the aftermath of the ousting of axis powers - this from Clive Emsley. Tony Rae talked about the meticulous and laborious piecing together of as complete a list as possible of British Police world-wide who've died in the course of duty. Know something of the problems of this in HK, so can imagine the scale of this list. My HK talk was well received - a surprising number of people with early HK connections, including some with Martime Customs relatives. Pipp the bear was the reward for speaking - would like a HK version, must show this to the Police Museum ...

I'm looking forward to the Police History Society conference this weekend - not a huge affair, but they have interesting line ups of speakers ... and this year is no different. I've used Clive Emsley's books a lot so I'm keen to hear him, then Tony Rae is talking about the forgotten police casualties in both the UK and colonial forces. The opening speaker is Harry Wynne - I'll be delighted to meet him, as he gave me the only two 19th century pictures I have of the Naval Dockyard Police Force and I want to pick his brains about my ongoing research about that little police force. And just this week the latest edition of Irish Lives Remembered came out - a free online quarterly journal published by the Irish Family History Centre. The editor, Patrick Roycroft had been really welcoming about my article - reckoning that it would open up a bit of Irish history unknown to most. He gave me a great build up in his editorial, for which I am very grateful .... even if it does sound as if my Newmarket men founded the HK Police Force! Well, its going to hook people in to read it, anyhow!! I'll have to go into profuse apology mode when I'm back in HK ..... never mind, all in a good cause. The link should take you to it, if you want to read it - nothing to sign up to, unless you want information from the Centre.

I've been waiting for the latest edition ofIrish Lives Remembered to appear - a free online quarterly journal published by the Irish Family History Centre - as the editor, Patrick Roycroft had been really enthusiastic about having an article from me. But I need to work out a way of better guiding the blurb these editors write .... I'm REALLY SORRY that it sounds like the Newmarket men founded the Hong Kong Police Force! Never mind, its great to have been given so much space and to get the book out to a wider audience. You don't need to sign up to view the journal - the link's above, click on fullscreen mode to read it.

Beginning to think it would never happen but whayhaaaaay!! the books are here!Yup, four boxes of books arrived at the UK distributor yesterday - one of them went straight out to Easons in Ireland - brill- but now they'll at last be available here. Just in time for the publication of a couple of articles ... about which I'm rather excited, but more of that in a week's time or so ....Normal language service has now been resumed. I wasn't allowed to use slang when I was seven.

Last Sunday, as I drove the 200 odd miles up the motorway to the incomparable Gladstone's Library near Flint, in north Wales, I listened to one of Alastair Cooke's Letter from America. The boxed set of CDs frequently accompanies me on long journeys, and I'm often struck by how Alastair's musings, sometimes now half a century old, offer insights pertinent to the present time. The first one to play that afternoon had been prompted by the dinner that Ronald Reagan had been embarrassed into giving on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1982. Cooke was reminiscing about the time when, with his first American press pass, he had covered Roosevelt's appearance and speech at Harvard University's 400th anniversary celebrations in autumn 1936. The deeply conversation elite of that university would have preferred not to have a President at the event at all, certainly not a Harvard man and very particularly not FDR. Four years earlier the newly elected President had astounded all by doing a complete political volte-face. Instead of continuing with the party theme of de-centralization and giving more powers to the individual states, Roosevelt put the nation's finances firmly back into the control of the Federal Government. FDR had, Cooke explained 'lifted his eyes' to see the bread queues outside the rusting steel mills and launched his New Deal programme, intent on directly improving the lot of the forgotten millions of jobless and the 25% of families country-wide who had no money coming in. Sadly when I muse, my thoughts stay in more prosaic territory. Delan-what? Don't know that I've seen his full name written. Sounds a bit Italian. Roosevelt - surely that's Dutch? Thanks to the programme, I did at least know what party he was from (I can really be a bit wooly about American politics). By a serendipitous quirk my first google search for his name brought up this New York Times article I think sometimes that my laptop will default to all things HK no matter what I search for ... but here I've got a forebear of the President, Mr. Gladstone, opium wars and the HK handover all in one. I had, of course, read about Gladstone's antipathy towards the retention and development of Hong Kong, or rather its promotion of opium addiction as a means to trade for all the consumer goods the west - and Britain in particular - wanted from the great closed empire.And what was I doing at Gladstones? .... oh, blood and gore, hackings and choppings. Part of HK's rich (feminine) history. Mr. Gladstone would, I think, raise a critical eyebrow about the use of his Library for the retelling of such tales, but I doubt the story would have surprised him. His idealism did not blind him to the realities of human nature.

Thrilled - and rather relieved - to finally have books again. The first print run sold out earlier this year, which gave an opportunity for some corrections, particularly to the index, which was compiled (by me) WAY too fast. Pete Spurrier (Blacksmith Books) has also included the lovely endorsement given by Eoin O'Leary, the Irish Ambassador to China. Pete put a box in the post by air last Tuesday and they arrived this morning - pretty nippy work through the skies, that.I was at the blood donor centre last week, and filled in the long health check form. "Yes" I've been abroad since my last donation. Its always the same thing, so I could tell the Donor Attendant that no, Hong Kong isn't on the 'OK' list, it has to get signed off by the nurse. HK has had some pretty scary health events in the past, so they check every time. The nurse came in: "Oh, hello! I got your book!" .... I'd met her on a previous occasion. Explaining then why I spend so much time in HK, she asked what I was writing and it turned out that she had a relative in the HK Police, one of the remaining overseas officers. Great excitement ensued - wasn't this so random?! Anyhow, this time I found out that she'd bought a copy of the book from Blacksmiths in HK, sent it to a relative in Ireland who was sending it on to the police relative in HK. These books do go on some convoluted journeys - who'd have thought!Meanwhile, work on my Crimwim - sorry, Criminal Women on the China Coast - has sent me looking for information about bank note printing in Hong Kong - and to Hugh Farmer's wonderful site The Industrial History of Hong Kong Group. I could spend FAR too much time on this site, there's a real wealth of articles about all aspects of activity in Hong Kong which give wonderful glimpses into the daily lives of people of earlier generations.

The sudden hike in temperature here in HK - typically '33 feels like 38' - is making my departure for temperate climes easier, but in preparation, last week I caught up with my good friends Peter Ryan and Caitriona O'Sullivan - Ireland CG and Vice Consul here in HK. When I return they'll both be in new posts, so I really wanted to thank them for the MASSIVE amount of support and help they've given me. I met Peter during his first months, setting up the full time Consulate and right from the outset he made it clear that I would have their full support - and I have. Hosting my book launch last April was the icing on the cake ... but it goes on, as Peter never fails to give a great shout-out to me - as to any authors present - at the Consulate First Friday brekkies. Caitriona's been brilliant at making things happen and sorting out problems for me - thank you, will miss you both so much! Peter Ryan in full flow at May's First Friday BreakfastHong Kong'sthree Newmarket-eers ... self, Peter Kennedy and Caitriona O'Sullivan at the book launch in April 2017.I finally spent some time getting back onto some of HK's lovely islands - including Cheung Chau. I dragged a pal round this island, but it sort of ended up as a guided tour of utility installations as my attempts to find various points of interest invariably ended up in sewerage treatment plants or pumping stations. But we did get to the 'new' (1913) Police Station overlooking the village, matching it up to the architects plans I had, whilst earlierI found what I think is the site of the formerPolice Station, aka the Customs House and beforethat a merchants house, on the Praya. Now setwell in from the sea, I reckon this is the place - give me a shout if you disagree, I'd love to know!And this coming weekend, back in the (cool) UK, I'm off to the RHKPA Agm in Lichfield. I'm going along to listen .... although its unlikely that I'll hear stories from 'my' period, I've found that time can pass very quickly in the company of these guys with great tales to tell ...On Sunday we're off to the near-by Natrional Memorial Arboretum for the dedication of a memorial to the Officers of the Royal Hong Kong Police who lost their lives in the course of duty. Its rather wonderful that this is happening during the centenary of the Gresson Street Affray, and Inspector Mortimor O'Sullivan and Sgt. Henry Goscombe Clarke will be two of those men so honoured.

Close to the end of the talk I gave on the Hongkong Naval Dockyard Police Force at the Maritime Museum back in February, I blithely declared that 'By the start of the 1920s the Royal Naval Dockyard Police was a properly organized and paid, professional force ...' At that point I knew of little material on the twentieth century, but what I had seemed to be pointing in that direction. Hmmm. I've spent the intervening two months in The National Archives in London and elsewhere, scouring records for this elusive Force in that century, and now the picture looks rather different.For a number of reasons, i generally keep to a cut-off date of 1941 for my research and writing, but since the Naval Dockyards themselves finally closed in Hong Kong in 1959, with its Police Force all but disbanded by the end of the previous year, I really need to take this story to its conclusion. The majority of TNA's resources are connected with pay and conditions. Trouble was, the Force had never been able to offer sufficient pay to attract enough men of good calibre. Certainly through to the mid 1930s it was difficult to fill all the European posts and men would often stay only long enough to find a better paid job in the colony. It was worse for the men of the Indian contingent, coming directly from northwest India to join, they tended to be more isolated from their compatriots in Hongkong and found it harder to obtain alternative employment here. (Aside from a handful of interpreters, there were no Chinese employed in this Force.) So the first decades of the century see annual petitions from the men - variously calling for their pay to match that of the Civil Police; for pensions at the end of their service; to receive leave pay whilst they were at home, rather than on their return (otherwise how could they pay their way?) and, in the case of the Indians, for their leave to be increased so they had time to do more than travel home only to turn round to start back almost immediately. I've been interested to see the changing attitudes in London, too. In the nineteenth century it seems that the Admiralty were always the big baddies. Come the 1910s, and the forceful Director of Dockyards on the case, the enemy is the 'tight-fisted' so-and-sos of the Treasury. Responses were often unsatisfactory and always slow. But the excitement of finding these petitions - TNA has the originals, with the men's own signatures - is that they open the possibility of tracing the lives and careers of a few of these men. I'm looking forward, too, to constructing a (necessarily partial) list of HKNDY Police, which I'll attach to the end of the article I'm currently writing. As I now start to uncover some individual stories, one aspect that comes through time and again is how important sport was to the Dockyard Policemen. Perhaps partly because it was a low-cost pastime, but also surely expressing the strong bond that had to develop quickly amongst this little group, the Yard had a good reputation on the football, hockey and cricket pitches of the colony. They could put up a fair lawn bowls team and often hosted snooker and billiards competitions. But perhaps rather woryingly, the Dockyard Polcie produced a disproportionately high number of Hongkong's championship boxers.