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The Professionals By this time fewer professionals died in Hong Kong. Lawyers and doctors were well paid and could afford to take a ship to Britain. But by now some professionals also saw Hong Kong as their home and not just a temporary place of residence. Among them particular mention must be made of three lawyers, Francis Innes Hazeland, whose wife, Margaretta [13/3/9], and son, John Innes Hazeland [12/5/9], are to be found in the Hong Kong Cemetery, and John Joseph Francis. These two followed in the footsteps of that indomitable survivor William Gaskell [16Cii/7/14], mentioned earlier, who was one of the first solicitors to work in Hong Kong, having arrived in the colony in November 1846 and stayed up to 1868, when he died aged fifty-seven. 1 Francis Hazeland arrived in the colony around the beginning of the Second Opium War. Soon after his arrival, in February 1857, he was attacked when returning from Stanley by the Military Road. He met three or four Chinese who accosted him in English. Turning to reply, he was surprised by a blow to his head and in attempting to ward off this, Mr. Hazeland’s thumb was nearly severed from his hand. Another stroke laid open his skull and stretched him senseless on the ground. Other wounds were inflicted, and his gold watch and chain were taken. 2 In spite of the doubts expressed as to his survival, Hazeland recovered without any lasting effects and resumed his work as a solicitor. He was an enthusiastic Freemason and was one of the very few to keep his sons in the colony and educate them at the Diocesan School at a time when to do so was almost unheard of. He died in January 1871 aged just thirty-six years: ‘Mr. Hazeland was much respected and the announcement of his death in the prime of his manhood caused general sorrow’. 3 The Legislative Council voted $3,000 as a gratuity to his family. He was Chapter 19 Changes Taking Place outside the Government Lim_txt.indd 389 28/12/2010 4:16 PM Forgotten Souls 390 buried in Happy Valley but the site of his grave has been lost. 4 Two of his sons, Ernest and Francis Arthur, distinguished themselves in the course of long careers in the colony. Ernest became an architect and civil engineer and Francis worked in the legal departments of the government where he rose to the positions of deputy registrar and acting chief clerk. 5 John Joseph Francis, who is buried in the Roman Catholic Cemetery, and was from Dublin, Ireland, is the third of the trio. He had become an army officer in his early twenties and was serving in the Royal Artillery when he was posted to China. In 1859, he made the momentous decision to buy himself out of the army and remain in Hong Kong. He worked as a clerk living in Mosque Street until 1865, when he became articled to William Gaskell. Francis later decided to become a barrister and in 1874 he left Hong Kong to become a student of Gray’s Inn, returning on qualification to be admitted to the Hong Kong bar in 1877. He quickly became influential in many spheres of his life. He was elected captain of the Volunteers Corps, revived for the third time in 1878, was a faithful adherent of the Roman Catholic Church in Hong Kong, and was one of the supporters of the Chinese in the colony. He signed an affidavit in support of the application of Ng Choy, the first Chinese to be admitted to practise at the bar. He was also an outspoken supporter of his fellow Irishman, the governor Sir John Pope Hennessy, whose pro-Chinese stance so upset the expatriate community. In 1886, when he was candidate for the justices of peace seat on the Legislative Assembly, Francis showed his feelings for his adopted home: ‘It is my home, my life’s work is here and I rise or fall with its fortunes’. 6 The Utilities Gas The first utility to reach Hong Kong, in November 1864, was gas lighting, to the delight of the Europeans who could then do away with the smoky, smelly lamps which used peanut oil and whose wicks needed constant trimming. Gas fitters for the new utility had to be sent out from England and again illness and death took their toll. The first to die in 1860 was Frederick...

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