Forgotten Souls: A Social History of the Hong Kong Cemetery

Chapter 4: Merchants, Clerks and Bankers

Who were the different groups of people who made up the cliques and coteries of this colony? How did they live and how did the groups differentiate themselves from each other? These are the questions that will be addressed in the following chapters. Table 1 sums up the occupations, of the 332 civilian denizens of the Hong Kong Cemetery from this period whose occupations are known. Table 2 shows how 157 military personnel found in the Cemetery during that period were divided among the services. Table 1 The Occupations of Civilians Who Died 1845–60 Men Women Children Total Merchants & Bankers 14 1 1 16 Civil Servants 19 7 9 35 Professionals 18 4 3 25 Merchant Navy 72 10 15 97 Tradesmen 14 3 5 22 Tavern Keepers 5 3 - 8 Missionaries 3 6 7 16 Artisans 4 - - 4 Totals 149 34 40 223 Table 2 Military Personnel Buried in the Hong Kong Cemetery 1845–60 Navy 38 – – 38 U.S. Navy 24 – – 24 Army 43 12 22 77 Commissariat 3 4 11 18 Totals 108 16 33 157 Chapter 4 Merchants, Clerks and Bankers Lim_txt.indd 92 28/12/2010 4:15 PM Merchants, Clerks and Bankers 93 It has been impossible to place another thirty-three civilians in categories since nothing has been found out about who they were or what they did. The first table represents the best estimation that can be made. Some headstones are close to being illegible and guesswork has been involved. Some names, like John Smith, could stand for more than one person and it is difficult to assign them occupations with any exactitude. Some men changed their occupation, for example from merchant sailor to barman, during their time in Hong Kong and have been assigned to the occupation for which they were best known. Many professionals, especially doctors and lawyers, acted as civil servants and at the same time had private practices. The tables are more useful viewed as an indication of the strength according to the numbers of the various groups than as an exact scientific tool. It must also be borne in mind that the death rate was exceptionally high among the lower rank soldiers during these years but no headstones exist for any soldier below the rank of sergeant, so the common soldiers and sailors who died in Hong Kong cannot be included. When the names of those listed on the various Royal Navy monuments to particular ships between 1845 and 1860 are added up, they total 288 mostly lower-ranking sailors. Between these years, when these sailors are added to the naval officers favoured with headstones, the number of sailors who were killed or died of disease in Eastern waters totals 326. This list includes the following monuments, the number after each name being the number of those from that ship who are commemorated as having lost their lives in the period 1845–60: HMS Calcutta, 50; HMS Columbine, 20; HMS Scout, 13; HMS Serpent, 4; HMS Sans Pareil, 31; HMS Sampson, 20; HMS Sybille, 22; HMS Tribune, 24; HMS Winchester, 108; HMS Bittern, 11. This again is an underestimation of the true numbers, since at least three other monuments exist where the names of those killed have either disappeared from the monument due to weathering or been omitted altogether as in the inscriptions on the monuments commemorating the ships, HMS Nankin and Cleopatra. There were also a number of ships that buried their dead at sea and left no monuments. The number of civilian men buried during the period 1845 to 1860 only adds up to 145. From these figures, it can be seen that the number of deaths among the ordinary sailors, and probably soldiers too, must have been far higher than the number of civilians who died in this period. Another indication of the strength of the various groups at that time is to look at who paid taxes and how much the various groups paid in property tax to the government. Two articles in the Friend of China, one written in 1851 and Lim_txt.indd 93 28/12/2010 4:15 PM Forgotten Souls 94 the other in 1852, shed some light on this subject. The first article divides the community as follows: The Hong Kong civil community numbers some three hundred and fifty individuals. Rather more than a third of them are trades people — less than a third are merchants...