Preface
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| A photograph by an unknown artiest titled, “William Quincey, Hong Kong Police, on his 65th birthday, Shanghai, China, 1913” Credit: National Galleries Scotland. The Stewart Lockhart Photographic Archive, on loan from George Watson’s College to the Scottish National Photography Collection. |
Explanatory Notes
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- The term "dollar" and the dollar sign "$" refer to the Hong Kong dollars.
- The expression "It is unknown..." and the abbrecivation "unk." generally mean it is unknown to me.
- Names of certain persons, establishments, and places are added in Chinese characters for the benefit of others researching similar stories as this one, particularly when reviewing papers in the Chinese language.
- Braces are used to indicate pinyin pronunciation, e.g. Li Hung-chang {Li Hongzhang} 李鸿章
- Writings, some lengthier than the others, about certain contemporaries of William and John Quincey can be found in footnotes under the relevant sections.
- Since the size of this post is fast reaching the preset limit dictated by Blogger for a single post, I've therefore placed the appendix and the selected bibliography in a separate post. Click here to view the supplemental notes.
- The recently updated contents are highlighted in blue color for easy reference; these include citations [cit] which are displayed in hover text.
Acknowledgment
I wish to extend my most sincere thanks to Mr. Frank Cuffman, who is the great-grandson of Mary Agnes Wong-Quincey, Inspector Quincey's third daughter, and Mr. Mikael Carroll, who is grandson of Lewis Patrick Quincey, Inspecter Quincey's sixth son, for their contributions of information as well as family photos, and for their untiring answers to my endless questions. My special thanks also go to Ms. Jane Church, whose GGGF's first cousin, Lawrence Bernard Boyack, married Mary Agnes mentioned above, for reaching out to me and for sending information.
PART I. WILLIAM W. QUINCEY
The Orphan Prince of Quinsan
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| A recent photo of the serene Kunshan. Credit: ww.mafengwo.cn. |
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| 1864 photograph of Charles George Gordon, a.k.a. China Godron, posted in Qing full dresse uniform under his own military banner that marked him as the Regional Commander of Kiangsu Province, China; Commanding Officer of the Forever Victorious Army. Credit: China.com. |
So how did Quincey get to be called Quincey? The official version, according to an interview of John Wong-Quincey by the Geneva Times published on October 23, 1957, Gordon gave this nameless Chinese orphan he took in the name "Wong of Quinsan", which meant Prince of Quinsan (whether or not there was a teasing aspect in this name is something I will leave to the readership to ponder). In time, Quinsan became Quincey either by means of evolution (nickname, easier to pronounce and remember the name Quincey than Quinsan, etc.) or due to lost in translation say at the time when Quincey was asked of his name by immigration when entering England. These assumptions become more probably when one considers the pronunciation of the word "Quinsan" in the Kunshan dialect, which is "kʼuəŋ se" in IPA and roughly "quainse" if deciphered in English letters. The Chinese elements in his name diminished further with the addition of William, the Christian name, and a step further still when he shortened the name Wong into an initial "W". There you have it, how a Chinese came to have a name William W. Quincey. [For that matter, Rudolph S. Butt was the name that appeared in all my business cards since I had one printed for me the very first time. But then, this is not a story about me, is it?] What is fascinating writing about the Quinceys is that there is always a twist to almost everything while nothing was what it seemed. Fact finding becomes an endless effort as a newer version, often contradicting existing information, is right around the corner waiting to be discovered. In the name matter, Peter, as can be expected, had his own official version. He said Quincey on return to China had actually been able to track down his family root and had identified his own surname, which was Wong, or Wang (pinyin). The China Mail of April 8, 1902 went further to providing Quincey's full Chinese name as Wang Chin-nien. Since this information came from an English journal, I will need to look somewhere else to see if I can find the correct Chinese characters of the name. [According to Eddie Wang, Quincey's Chinese name was Wong Jingnian. Mr. Wang identifies himself as the great grandson of Quincey - the grandson of Thomas Quincey, or Wang Wenguang, Quincey's eldest son. (5/19/2014)]
A report on the March 25, 1902 edition of the Shanghai Shun Pao 上海申報 led me to believe the Chinese characters of Quincey's name i.e., Wang Chin-nien, to be 王經年. The report says, "有王經年者，籍隶苏州府，属昆山县，幼赴外洋，遂占西籍，前年遄回本国，充南市捕房捕头..." [cit], roughly translates as, " a certain {Wang Jing-nian}, belonging to Kunshan, went overseas at young age, thus assumes a foreign nationality, returned to this country several years back, took the position of inspector of south city police station..."
Three days after I wrote the above, I stumbled upon a 1800-1900 list of British residents in Malta on the web (the list had also included entries of certain non-British foreign residents), in which I found the following entry:
| William QUINCEY, born 1851, baptized 4th April 1869, the son of Lang Wang Quincey, a Chinese farmer [According to Eddie Wang, Quincey's father was born in Quinsan in 1828 and died in Jiangsu in 1863, who went by the name of Wong Hao-nan. (5/19/2014)] |
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| Church of the Holy Trinity, Sliema. Credit: The Anglican Church in Malta |
[I've also made several attempts to email the chaplain of the Holy Trinity Church, but the mail returned with a message that said it could not be delivered. I will try other means later, only that I will not resort to writing a letter on paper, which I've not done for decades. (3/28/2013)]
Were these two Quinceys the very same person? I think it is odd if they weren't, judging from the resemblance. This new piece of information on Quincey's identity overturns much of what I previously found and seasons this story with a considerable measure of mystery. What was Quincey doing in Malta? Why was his father named Quincey? For a moment, I let my imagination run wild and comes an interesting scenario. Was his father in reality not a farmer but a Taiping band leader in Quinsan[5] whom Gordon had killed in battle? This line of thinking may not be too wild after all. British mercenary Samuel Halliday Macartney, for example, married the niece of a Taiping prince not long after the poor prince was beheaded by order of Macartney's Chinese employer[6].
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| [2] Information I found recently from the Suzhou Chronicles 蘇州地方志 says Quincey wasn't orphaned by the war, rather he had been separated from his family when Gordon "rescued" him. (1/4/2013) | ||
| [3] It was not uncommon at the time for Western military officers (or civilians) to take home young orphans from China. I don't have to look far to find an example. Colonel Edward Forrester 法爾思德 (b.1832-d.1901) of Clayton, New York, mercenary and EVA's second in command since 1859, resigned his commission in 1862. He returned to the U.S. with a young Chinese he named Usa (as in the USA) H. Forrester [Forester](b.1849-d.1931). The young Forrester moved to Lansing, Michigan in 1869 and, years later, became, as well as the owner of a wholesale and retail business at Washington Avenue, a prominent citizen. In 1887, Usa Forester was acclaimed "Lansing’s Pride!" along with eleven other manufacturers, merchants and tradesmen on the 50th anniversary of Lansing's founding. | ||
| [4] I have made an online inquiry through the Aldershot website to see if records of Quincey's existence there could be traced. I am very grateful for the kind assistance Gina of Hampshire Archives and Local Studies and Gill of Hampshire Museums and Arts Service have afforded me. Unfortunately, nothing has turned up so far. (1/3/2013) | ||
| [5] Prince Lang (Lang Wang) of Quinsan sounds very impressive but the fact is Taiping did not have a Prince Lang. Nonetheless, Quincey's father could still be a senior Taiping officer whom Gordon respected. | ||
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| [a] Knight Commander of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire. | ||
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Descendant of the Intrepid Wong Princes
818 days after the date when I first published this "seemingly never ending" story, I chanced the following brief biography of John Wong-Quincey which was printed on the back panel of the dust jacket of Chinese Hunter, a book written by John, which was first published in 1939. (3/14/2015) Here are the image and the transcript of the biography that offer intriguing information on Quincey's family background:
Young Quincey was sent to England and spent his most impressionable years with the British Army. Returning to China in the seventies, he joined the Hong Kong police and was twenty years a detective there and in other cities. From Britishers on their way home after living in China, he gradually acquired a great collection of fire-arms, which his sons learned to handle. No other youths in the whole of the Far East ever had such a wide choice of weapons. The youngest but one of the six sons is the author of this book. He went to college at Tientsin, and then in 1908 to the University of London, where he studied for five years. In 1913, after a diplomatic mission in Europe, he returned to China to engage in literary work, and two years later became a teacher of literature at Tsing Hua University near Peking. Until 1957 he served continuously as education administrator and professor of Literature. In 1926, he spent a year in graduate study in Yale. His special subject is the Shakespearean drama, and he is himself the author of a number of plays. He is at present living as a refugee in Tientsin. |
Self-reproach is perhaps too heavy a word, but I do feel bad for not discovering this information much earlier with the fact that it is so readily available. On the other hand, however, I was quite happy that I didn't for it afforded me the opportunity to made a few assumptions about Quincey's family background. As it turns out I was right on track. The question remains unanswered is who were the "Intrepid Wong Princes"? According to the Official Biography of Li Hung-chang 李鴻章傳 written by Liang Chi-chao {Liang Qichao} 梁啟超, the eight Taiping military commanders who plotted together and surrendered Soochow to Li were: Prince Na, Gao Yongkuan 納王郜永寬; Prince Bi, Wu Guiwen 比王伍貴文; Prince Kang, Wang Anjun 康王汪安均; Prince Ning, Zhou Wenjia 寧王周文佳; and four Heavenly Generals 天將軍, Fan Qifa 范起發, Zhang Dazhou 張大洲, Huan Wuba 環武八, and Wang Youwei 汪有為. All eight of them, together with over one thousand of their close followers were summarily executed on the same day they opened the city gate and laid down their arms. I have no idea to whom Quincey was related.
I mentioned earlier that there was no Prince Lang in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. I was wrong. There was. Prince Lang (Liang) 梁王, a man named Zhang Zongyu 張宗禹, was the commander of the Western Nian Army 西捻軍, a rebel army affiliated to Taipin. Despite the fact that it didn't come under Taipin's chain of command, the Nian Army did carry the military color of Taiping. Zhang was Qing Court's most feared rebel. He was famous for annihilating the 11,000 men strong Mongolian Cavalry Division, Qing's most elite cavalry unit, in April 1865 and killing its commander Prince Sengge Rinchen 僧格林沁. Sengge was the 26th generation direct descendant of Jo'chi Qasar, the brother of the mighty Genghis Khan. Zhang fought all his battles in northern and north-western China. He was a native of Guoyan County 渦陽縣 in northwestern Anhui 安徽省. I found no record so far that linked him to Soochow or Quinsan. Zhang disappeared after having been defeated by Qing army in 1868 and was never seen again. Was Zhang, Prince Lang, the same man whose name Quincey had provided for his baptize certificate as his father: Lang Wang Quincey?
According to Denny Wong, the great-grandson of Charles, Quincey's seventh son, Quincey was the son of Gao Yongkuan, Prince Na of Taiping. Gao was one of the eight Taiping princes executed after they had surrounded Soochow to the Qing Imperial forces despite a prior safe conduct agreement, in which Gordon acted as a guarantor. I have consulted several sources including the Dai Qing Shilu (The Official Dynastic Histories of Qing) and found that Gao had an adopted son named Gao Shengbiao 郜勝鑣, who at the fall of Soochow was taken in by Gordon to protect him from the onslaught of the Imperial forces. This took place in December 1863. More than a decade later in 1880, Gordon visited China as a guest of Li Hong-chang and while in Tientsin, he met with some old friends in China including a man he called the son of Prince Na. Gordon further mentioned that the man was then a “Red Button Mandarin”, which means he became a Qing court official. If the person Gordon met in 1880 was Gao Shengbiao, then Quincey he was not. There were also records that said Gao had a son named Gao Tchin-tang, the Chinese writing could possibly be 郜覲堂. No further information could be found about this person.
| H.W. Croker, III, the author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to the British Empire” has this to say about Charles Gordon, Quincey and Wang Gordon's Wangs … As part of his Christian life, Gordon, throughout his career, took in orphaned boys. Some became his servants during the Taiping campaigns; one he named “Quincey” and paid for his education (Quincey later became a Shanghai police officer). In England, he dubbed his collection of orphans or boys from poor or fatherless families his “wangs”. He had his housekeeper scrub them clean, bought them clothes, gave them pocket money, and set them onto careers (often at sea). He was proud to chart their lives and fortunes, sticking pins in a map to mark their travels.... Honestly, I will take this matter (relevant to Quincey being a descendant of a Wang, or Wong, or indeed a prince) no further except to report these findings. (11/17/2017) | ||
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Police Sergeant or Batman?
By calculation based on records in Hong Kong, Quincey entered the Hong Kong Police Force – HKPF [HKPD would have sounded a lot better] in 1870. The timing of this event contradicted what John Wong-Quincey was quoted as telling Danish explorer, Frits Holm, back in 1907 that his father received 11 years of education in England. If the Hong Kong records were correct, Quincey could not have spent more than 6 years in England. If the son was right, Quincey couldn't possibly enter HKPF before 1875. On top of that, don't forget, was Quincey's unexplained residency in Malta. Since these are unresolvable for now, I say we move on and leave it that Quincey joined HKPF in the 1870s[1].
| I know of a quotation befitting a moment like this; it says, "History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice-guiding interpretation". Shri Parakash, the man who came up with this line, is Indian but not a guru; he teaches management technology[2]. |
HKPF was actively recruiting rank and file officers in the UK in the beginning of 1870s, because the Captain Superintendent, Walter Meredith Deane 田尼, was unhappy with the results of hiring (European officers) locally or from Continental Europe. The excessive diversity in races and creeds among the officers, and the lack of uniformity in their background and training had made managing the Force incredibly, and unreasonably, difficult. The international recruitment program, which Deane himself initiated three years ago when appointed police chief, returned more faults than merits. He now wanted something streamlined: native Chinese to be managed by imported Britons. Only he had no idea he was to import a Chinese from England. I did a quick search on government reports dated between 1868 and 1878 trying to find Quincey's hiring record and came away empty-handed. The single relevant item I was able to find is a recruitment list attached to the 1876 Annual Police Report. On the list were names of 45 recruits from Scotland in 1872, and another 20 from London a year after (see Appendix I). The name of Quincey was nowhere to be found. This doesn't mean Quincey wasn't hired in the UK. Contrarily, UK would be the only place where Quincey would be hired for a post in HKPF since, I believe, he was privately placed rather than recruited through open channels. Who else would help Quincey jump start a career if not Chinese Gordon, his adoptive father / master. Gordon, in 1871, was about to take up his first overseas assignment since returned home from China; he was appointed British Commissioner on the European Commission of the Danube. He considered, I imagine, it was a good time to find Quincey a job at a place best fit the young man's background; Hong Kong topped his wish list. It is however questionable if Gordon had specifically had a police job in mind (unless Quincey did went to a military school as Peter said); I believe he just wanted to find Quincey a position with the Hong Kong government.
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| Arthur E. Kennedy. Credit: State Library of Queensland |
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| [1] A document titled "Civil Establishment of Hong Kong, for the Year 1883" I just found confirms that Quincey joined HKPF in October 1870, classified as "appointment under the Colonial Government". (9/23/2013) |
| [2] The Parakash, I've just found out, was only quoting American historians Will Durant(b.1885-d.1981) and Ariel Durant (b.1898-d.1981) who wrote in their book, The Lessons of History (Simon & Schuster, 2010), "History is mostly guessing, the rest is prejudice." (1/12/2013) |
The Celebrated Inspector Quincey
The August 21, 1880 issue of the Hong Kong Daily Press carried the following report:
| We learnt that Sergeant Quincey has been transformed by His Excellency the Governor into an Inspector, and that considerable dissatisfaction prevails among the members of the Police Force at the appointment, more particularly since he has, though nominally a sergeant, acted as an attendant at Government House. |
What this reporter did not know was that Colonel Charles George Gordon, the Suppressor of Taiping, was in Hong Kong[1] on the very same day he filed the report about Quincey's unpopular promotion, or "transformation" as he had termed it. While here, Gordon, who probably was staying at the Government House as a guest of Kennedy's successor as governor - John Pope-Henessy 軒尼詩 - and Quincey had the opportunity to catch up and the colonel was discernibly unhappy that Quincey had made no progress in his career during the past eight years (more likely was not given the opportunity to) and remained a batman. He decided it was time for a gear shift and took the matter up during a casual conversation with Pope-Hennssy. The unorthodox governor[2] was more than happy to entertin the suggestion of the "Great Soldier" (an affectionate name given to Gordon by British journalists). And, instantaneously, Quincey, the batman, became Police Inspector William W. Quincey, the only Chinese inspector in the 666 men strong HKPF, and Hong Kong's very first[3]. [Quincey's appointment to be an inspector was dated August 1882 according to the 1882 Government Bluebook. What exactly happened between 1880 and 1882 with respect to Quincey's inspector position was unknown to me.]
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| William Quincey (3rd, back row), ca.1885 photo. The officer sitting in the middle was Walter M. Deane, Chief of Police. Credit: Voices from the Past: Hong Kong, 1842-1918. |
| The China Mail, November 16, 1883, Local and General Inspector Quincey has again defeated a possessor of an immense quantity of smuggled opium. The case is remanded and we have been asked not to publish details as we are informed, the bad characters in the island learn the contents of the English papers, and not unfrequently get a tip or two from them. |
| The China Mail, December 9, 1884, Local and General Last night, about 8:30, Inspector Quincey and Sergeant Butlin very opportunely dropped across a Chinaman fully equipped as an incendiary. These officers, with a lukong*, were going along Queen's Road West, in company, when the lynx-eyed Quincey observed a man lurking under a verandah in Fat Hing Street. Being suspicious of the man, the Inspector told his lukong to hail the man. This was done, when the man took to his heels as fast as he could. He was stopped by Sergeant Butlin and searched. Concealed in his left hand sleeve were two packages, containing about 1 lb. Of powder, rolled in paper saturated with kerosine; a bundle of brown paper also saturated with kerosine, inside of which was a box of matches. He was also armed with a very formidable looking dagger, and on being searched in the Station, a bundle of eight skeleton keys and two pawn tickets were founded on him. This morning he was taken before Mr. Wise, and charged with being in possession of the articles found on him with felonious intent. He was also identified by the Compradore of the Hongkong Dispensary as having been employed as a coolie there in the soda water manufactory for five months. He was discharged on the 1st November. The Police are of opinion that he is the person who attempted to set fire to the Hongkong Dispensary about the end of September, a packet of powder, about ½ lb., rolled up in a paper, to which was attached a lighted joss stick, was found in the laboratory, to which the coolie employed in the soda water manufactory had access. The case was then remanded until tomorrow morning. But for the opportune capture of this deliberate scoundrel, a serious fire might have had to be recorded. A few individuals of his stamp would soon convert this city into a most undesirable residence. * A lukong is a Chinese constable. |
| The China Mail, July 17, 1886, Local and General Three Chinese dealers were charged at the Police Court this morning by Inspector Quincey with the possession of light scales and measures. One was fined $10 and the other two, $15 each. |
| The China Mail, August 21, 1886, Local and General Beltran, it appears, has eluded his captors again. Inspector Quincey having been unable to track him returned to the Colony from Canton this afternoon. It is to be presumed the knowledge of his whereabouts declared to have been got at Canton must have been a rather hasty assumption. |
| The China Mail, March 2, 1887, Local and General Two dealers in the Pak Kop Piu lottery, who were arrested by Inspector Quincey and Sergeant Mann, were fined $100 each at the Police Court yesterday. One stumped up the dollars at once, and the other will very likely find the money in a day or two. |
| The China Mail, March 7, 1887, Local and General Two Chinese servants of Messrs. Blackhead & Co. were arrested on Saturday by Inspector Quincey and Sergeant Macdonald on a charge of stealing various articles to the value of $17. Their boxes were searched and the missing articles found in them. They were both sentenced to three months hard labor. [There was a follow up story.] |
| The China Mail, September 7, 1887, Local and General Inspector Quincey has arrested other three men, who he says he has reason to believe were concerned in the burglarious attack on Messrs. Blackhead & Co.'s house at Tsim-tsa-tsoi. They were brought up at the Police Court today, but the case was remanded for further investigations to be made. |
| The China Mail, September 12, 1887, Local and General At the instance of Inspector Quincey six men were charged, before Mr. Wodehouse in the Police Court today, with public gambling. The first defendant was fined $50 with the alternative of six weeks' imprisonment, while the others were sentenced to pay a fine of $5 each or suffer fourteen days imprisonment. |
| The Hong Kong Telegraph, September 18, 1890, Local and General The keeper of a gaming den that was raided on Saturday night by Detective Quincey and Haddon, was convicted at the Police Court this morning and sentenced by Mr. E. Robinson to four months' imprisonment with hard labor. |
| The China Mail, October 24, 1890, Local and General The two gambling club managers, arrested in the den in Stanley Street which was raided by Inspector Quincey and a party of police yesterday, were brought before Mr. A. G. Wise in the Police Court today. The case was remanded and bail was fixed at $250 for each prisoner. |
| The Hongkong Telegraph, November 19, 1890, Local and General Detective Inspector Quincey and Sergeant McIver returned from Macao this morning having in custody the absconding Joa(s)qulm Xavier who will have to face the music at the Police Court tomorrow in respect to the embezzlement of $1,000, the money of the Supreme Court, in June last. |
| The China Mail, June 16, 1891, Local and General Another man who is wanted by the Chinese authorities was arrested by Inspector Quincey and Sergeant Hadden last night. |
| The China Mail, November 16, 1894, Local and General An account of an eating house in Bonham Strand was charged by Inspector Quincey before Captain Hastings at the Magistracy this morning with selling intoxicating liquors without having the requisite license. The case was dismissed, the Magistrate holding that there was no legal sales within the meaning of the Act. |
| The China Mail, May 3, 1895, Local and General This morning Inspector Quincey was instrumental in saving the life of a Chinaman at Yaumatie. A couple of natives were skylarking in the water until they lost their tempers and one of the men was pushed under the water. He sank twice before Inspector Quincey reached him in a sampan, and was so thoroughly exhausted that artificial respiration had to be resorted to. In about ten minutes, he was out of danger. Another Chinaman was rescued from the Harbor last night, and was brought round by means of artificial respiration. |
Almost all of these 13 articles spoke favorably of Quincey, but not one had mentioned that Quincey was a Chinese. I suppose this will continue to puzzle me until I can find a reasonably probable answer.
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| This Enfield 0.476 Double-Action Revolver MkII was most likely the kind used by Quincey. |
| The Brisbane Courier, April 22, 1887 An inquest has been held on the body of the Chinese fruit hawker who was accidentally shot by Inspector Quincey, of the Hong Kong Police Force, whilst firing at an escaping thief, and a verdict of accidental death returned. Inspector Quincey was charged, at the instance of the relatives of the deceased, on a summons, with manslaughter, but the charge was afterward withdrawn. |
My surmise is that the family of the fruit hawker dropped the charge against Quincey for one of the following three reasons: 1). they were paid off; 2). they were scared off and; 3). they were paid off and threatened. Was Quincey a bad shot? Possibly. He was not chosen to represent Hong Kong at the Interport Rifle Match held at the Kowloon Ranges on October 28, 1896 but instead asked to act as umpire for Hong Kong. The event was a one-day match between Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. Hong Kong won by scoring 916, 16 points more than the first runner-up - Shanghai[6]. This is another piece of evidence that Quincey was popular among foreign residents in Hong Kong, perhaps even in the region.
I wrote earlier that Quincey had two men he owed his success in HKPF. The first man was Captain Superintendent Walter Meredith Deane (b. June 22, 1840, London - d. August 2, 1906, Somerset), as any other police chief would give Quincey a job in the back office, pushing pencils and counting paper clips. That should satisfy, even if only marginally, the governor while, more importantly, assure the boat was steady and not rocked. But that wasn't for Deane, he put Quincey on the street, teaming him with other British officers, sergeant and constables including; that, had to be the biggest coups in the HKFP history since its formation in 1844. Deane was clearly a different breed of police chief. When placed at the top post of HKPF, Deane was but a 27 years old government administrator with 5 years work experience in total, who had no prior police training and did not come from a police family (his father was a school master and his grandfather, a Light Dragoons captain). He had an elite education (B.A., 1862 and M.A., 1866 from Trinity College at Cambridge) and was recruited to join the Hong Kong government as a cadets[7] while still in university. His entire adult life was exposed only to two institutions, namely, his university and his employer for life – the Hong Kong Government. He spoke fluent Cantonese and had a reasonably good and first hand knowledge of what's going on in the Chinese quarters of the city. I cannot tell what significant effect, good or bad, Quincey's role as an active member of the European team had for HKPF, but judging from the above news clippings, it may be fair to say that Deane had made a good decision there. [A good thing about historians - I am not one - is that they are almost always right, "See, I told you Deane had made a good decision"]. In fact Deane was quite accustomed to making good decisions, he should, as the longest serving chief of police in the history of Hong Kong (1868-1891).
The second man Quincey needed to be thankful was himself as he was a truly remarkable man. To say that he stood out like a sore thumb in HKPF is clearly an understatement. Quincey's appointment was, I imagine, completely unacceptable to the British inspectors, not only he was a Chinese but also because he had not earned the rank - he had absolutely no experience in police work. He was a peer they detested having. To the inspectors' compatriots in the Force's lower echelon, i.e. sergeants and constables, the installation of Quincey, a Chinese who now outranked them was completely incomprehensible. Only when it had sunk in, they began to see themselves as the subject of ridicule, as they, the colonial masters, had now had to salute and take orders from a Chinese. Remember this was the 1870s, an era in which racial segregation was practiced in Hong Kong – legally sanctioned. At the other end of the stick, Quincey fared no better among the Chinese contingent of the Force. Put simply, he was not one of them. He was a ngoigonglou 外江佬 (literally: the bloke from a foreign river), an outlander from the north (anywhere in the Mainland is generally considered north, except Hainan); a man with no name but a shameful one of a Fan Kwae; and worst of all a laquais - by nature a snitch - of the colonial masters. Had not for his adapting the local tongue of Cantonese while working at the Government House, the Mandarin-and-Kunshan-dialect-speaking Quincey could not even communicate with the Chinese constables without a translator. He, I reckon, could not read and write Chinese and so did 90% of the Chinese members of the HKPF at the time; so that verbal exchange was the one and only item in his repertoire as far as communicating in Chinese was concerned.
Perhaps regulated by human temperaments, most people would be thoroughly demoralized, if not defeated completely, when clouded from all sides by disapproval, distrust, disgust, and even hatred. These temperaments fought against Quincey but did not prevail over him, for before long, he had became a well-liked and popular figure in and outside of the Force. What was at work were Quincey's strong stomach, accurate intuition derived from an acute survival instinct, his positive and composed disposition, wittiness, and above all, a quintessential Quincey quality: his Chinese rooted amiable demeanor and a well acquired English sense of humor. [Do I begin to sound like a fan of Quincey?] Still, all these were not sufficient to turn things around, not in a short while anyway. I was almost certain I missed something in my research as there had to be an "ice breaking" event that involved Quincey and through which he came away a chivalrous character. He was no longer Gordon's Chinese boy; he had proved himself to be a brilliant pupil of the Great Soldier.
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| HKPF detectives, ca.1920. Credit: HKPF. Unfortunately, photos of an earlier date cannot be found. |
I have no idea how it all began, but Quincey was made the liaison between HKPF and Qing China's law enforcement bureaus. So close was his relation with the Qing authorities that he was allowed to go across the border into China and arrest felons wanted in Hong Kong, reciprocally he would, with the permission of HKPF, arrest Mainland criminals hiding in Hong Kong and handed them over to the Canton authorities. The liaison position was not official, also to the best of my knowledge there was no extradition treaty between Britain and Qing. As such, the cross-border arrests that Quincey had been effecting might not be "exactly" legal, but back then punishing criminals for their crimes was more important than technicality issues; or so I thought. In 1881, Quincey, acting on request of the Qing authorities, arrested 13 men in Hong Kong wanted for murder in the Mainland. The alleged murderers were detained by the Police Court but later set free by order of Pope-Hennessy (rightfully, I believe, as the men had broken no laws in Hong Kong). The Qing authorities were quite unhappy about it and took the matter to London through diplomatic channels. In 1883 (after the departure of Pope-Hennessy as governor of Hong Kong), HKPF was directed by London to rearrest the same men set free two years ago. It was clearly a recipe for a mission impossible, but miraculously Quincey got all of them in a single operation... only that four of them were not among the original 13 arrested the first time. These four, however, were said to be alleged to have been implicated in the offense and were prosecuted just the same. A cold case turned hot, and Quincey, the magic closer, won yet another battle for justice. Further details of this case can be found in The Hong Kong Daily Press clipping I placed in Appendix IV.
The third role was governmental social secretary but in this case he was like a humbler version of Jeremy Bernard (and I didn't mean Quincey was gay) and Fredo Corleone (in Godfather II, while working for Moe Greene) rolled into one. Quincey took care of government visitors, no matter what their pleasure were. The following story from the September 21, 1897 issue of the Straits Times gave a pretty good description of what Quincey did in this role, not without flattering.
| ... many persons who have at various periods visited the colony. When any globe-trotter of distinction arrived, a Duke, Earl, or Marquis, it was always Inspector Quincey who was told off to show him the sights of China-town, and, when our military or naval friends made up parties to go to the native theaters, the same officer's services were generally impressed as cicerone. By his courtesy and his sense of humor he added largely to the entertainment, and always commanded the kindly feelings of those whom he accompanied. In the course of his career he has received testimonials and letters of thanks from various celebrities, among them being H.R.H. Prince Henry of Prussia, the late General Grant, ex-President, United States of America, the late King Kalakaua, of the Hawaiian Islands, Lord Wicklow, Lord Cadogan, and various other well known public men. The late General Gordon was, as everyone knows, a great friend to Quincey, who has, in addition to three or four recommendations, many private letters and documents from the great soldier which are of great interest. |
| [1] On June 6, 1880, Gordon, while raveling in India, received a telegram from Li Hong-Chang inviting him to go to China. He went to Hong Kong on July 3 and after a side trip to Canton, went to Shanghai and then Tientsin, where he and Li met on July 21. Gordon returned to Hong Kong on or shortly before August 21. on his way back to England. [cit] | ||
So bad was the relations between the governor and the British community that the latter had staged a public demonstration against him (though officially the demonstration was to oppose high crime rate in the city) on October 7, 1878 on the cricket ground (present day Chater Gardens), whereat a resolution was passed asking that a commission to be sent from London to review the administration. This British protest evoked a counter demonstration from the Chinese inhabitants, who on October 20, 1878, organized an address signed by 2,218 shop-keepers to the Queen in support of the governor. The resolution and the address were duly forwarded to the Colonial Secretary in London. At the end, no commission was ever sent from London, but when Pope-Hennessy went to Europe for holiday in 1883, he was ordered not to return to Hong Kong. He was later sent to Mauritius as its governor. | ||
| [3] According to the document "Civil Establishment of Hong Kong for the Year 1883" mentioned earlier, Quincey's inspector appointment only became effective in August 1882. It would be interesting to find out what causes the discrepancy of two years... when I have time. The HKPF, in 1882, was comprised of 117 Europeans, 172 Indians and 197 Chinese, and 183 men from the Water Police, a majority of whom, I suspect, would be Chinese. Here is a breakdown in positions and pay scale of the European contingent; 1 Captain Superintendent ($3,840), 1 Adjutant (Army secondment), 1 Chief Inspector ($1,440), 12 Inspectors (4 First Class ($1,200), 3 Second Class ($960); 4 Third Class ($720), 1 unclassified - that being Quincey ($540, plus $60 for good conduct and $108 for special service, totaling $708)), 11 Sergeants ($540) and 88 Constables ($480). [Essentially, Quincey was under the pay grade of an European sergeant. An Indian sergeant received $270, and his Chinese counterpart $300.] (9/23/2013) There was a 1887 record of a police inspector by the name of John Lee who was granted leave of absence in that year. He was appointed to be inspector under the Women and Girls' Protection Ordinance on April 7, 1891, working for the Registrar-General's Office until he retired on pension on April 1, 1902. John Lee sounds Chinese to me (that said, Christopher Lee is no Chinese, neither was Laurie Lee). There remains the possibility of Lee being the second Chinese inspector of HKPF. | ||
| [4] In comparison, the Chief Inspector of HKPF was paid $1,440 a year (in 1879). I also found a record that showed some inspectors of police had forwarded a petition for increase of pay to John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley, Colonial Secretary in London, on September 28, 1881. The petition was redirected to Pope-Hennessy to handle. Unfortunately, I found no follow up stories to be able to tell the outcome of the petition. [Thanks to David Deptford, a reader of this story, for providing the following information, which he found in the HKPF Blue Books.] Quincey, appointed an Inspector 3rd Class in August 1882, drew a salary of $840 in 1887. He was made Inspector 2nd Class in 1888 with a pay rise, the new salary was $960, which again went up to $1,092 in 1891. According to the Civil Establishments of Hong Kong for the Year 1896, Quincey was appointed Inspector 1st Class on December 4, 1895, drawing a salary of 1,368. He was paid at the same scale as other European inspectors of the same class. | ||
| [5] Pope-Hennessy ordered firearm training for selected Chinese constables in the beginning of 1878. By September the same year, 30 to 40 Chinese constables were armed with rifles whilst on night duties. No sooner had Pope-Hennessy left Hong Kong in 1883, than the protocol was revoked. The arming of Chinese policemen would only be reactivated in the 1920s. | ||
|
[a] The following legal instrument of Quincey's naturalization was published in the Hong Kong Government Gazette of April 22, 1882. His naturalization proceedings were completed on March 24, 1883.
I wonder what kind of travel document he had been using before the naturalization. Quite certainly, no travel or identification document was applied for him when he left China with Gordon. |
The Plague Detector
An outbreak of plague occurred in the Yunnan Province 雲南省 in China in 1855[1], which, in the next few decades, spread randomly throughout China, and in 1890s it reached the southern port of Canton (Guangzhou). The first recorded case of plague in Canton was diagnosed by Dr. Mary West Niles on January 16, 1894. Niles (b.1854-d.1933) was a medical missionary from Watertown, Wisconsin, who worked at the Canton Ophthalmic Hospital 廣州博濟醫院. By March, the spread of plague had reached an epidemic rate in Canton and yet it had attracted little attention in Hong Kong. There was but one report in a Chinese-language newspaper of the plague epidemic in Canton, which also noted the city government's response to the epidemic: the ordering of street cleaning. That measure, sadly, did almost nothing to stop the disease. The death toll of the plague in Canton had risen to the level of 60,000 by the end of June 1894.
The first alarm of the imminent plague infestation in Hong Kong was raised by Quincey on April 26, 1894 at a meeting of the Sanitary Board. He told the Board he was informed by his sources of an overwhelming numbers of sick and dead in Canton. Acting on Quincey's disturbing report, the first order of business the Hong Kong government had taken was to send Dr. James Alfred Lowson 婁遜, acting superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital, to Canton to assess the situation. No sooner had Lowson returned, in fact, it was exactly 12 days after Quincey had blown the whistle, than he diagnosed the first case of plague in Hong Kong. A quick inspection at the Tung Wah Hospital on the same day had turned up another 20 suspected cases. The date was May 8, 1894. Foul Bills of Health was issued by George Digby Barker 白加, Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong and Acting Administrator of Hong Kong Government, on May 10, 1894 declaring Hong Kong an infected port. The measure put in force under the proclamation was however valid for a period of one month[2].
Police Captain Superintendent Francis Henry May 梅含理 deputized himself, Quincey, Sergeant McIvor, Acting-Sergeant Smith, P.C. McAuley, and nine Chinese detectives on May 9 as sanitary officers and embarked on a "house-to-house visitation" of the known infected districts. Infected persons (or persons suspected of being infected, since no medical personnel accompanied the spotting team) were removed to the hospital hulk Hygeia 病人躉船"懈齋亞", a.k.a. 海之家, and the Kennedy Town [glass Works] Hospital, while the dwellers of their residences vacated. The mortality, during the first week after the proclamation, was roughly 60%. No fewer than 98 deaths from plaque occurred in the first seven days. As it was difficult to enroll Chinese laborers to convey the dead to the China Merchants' Wharf 香港招商局倉碼 for conveyance to the burial-ground, May and Quincey had themselves, as described by the Adelaide Advertiser, "put the blackened and decomposing corpses in the coffins." Quincey continued to be in the spotting team until that responsibility was taken over by the Sanitary Board on July 31, 1894, by which time, there had been 2,442 deaths. No fewer than 7,000 persons were dispossessed of their homes, and 350 houses were condemned and sealed off[3].
The worst was over by September and it wasn't until the second quarter 1985 that the government became vigilant once more, clearly learning from the horrific onslaught of the disease in the same period the previous year. Quincey, from May 17 through July 31, 1895, commanded a detachment of Chinese detectives whose duties were to keep watch of ferries arriving at night from Canton, and stalk arriving passengers to their lodgings so that people coming from China were marked and "theoretically" traceable. In December the same year, a medical missionary, John E. Kulne 柯納, who worked at the Rhenish Mission Church Hospital in Tungkun 東莞禮賢會普濟醫院, brought the news that the death rate in Shek Lung (Shilong), a small town in Tungkun {Dongguan} 東莞石龍鎮, was escalating at an alarming speed; he feared that the plague might be returning and Shek Lung the epicenter of an impending epidemic. A fact finding team was quickly assembled and sent off to Shek Lung in the latter part of December 1895. The team was composed of an army doctor, Sinclair Westcott; British Vice Consul in Canton {Guangzhou}, Frederick Samuel Augustus Bourne 波恩 and Quincey, with Dr. Kuhne as their guide. The Plague did return to Hong Kong in a matter of weeks with the first case occurred on January 4, 1896. A total of 675 cases was recorded during the first four months in 1896; the death toll: 602. The plague would continue to haunt Hong Kong, off and on, for the next 30 years. But it would no longer be Quincey's concern after August 1897, at least not officially.
 |
| The Hong Kong Plague Medal. Credit: British Army Medal. |
In 1895, the Hong Kong government issued a Hong Kong Plague Medal and awarded them to both military personnel and civilians, for services during the outbreak of bubonic plague in 1894. The medal was issued in gold to officers and eminent civilians, and in silver for other recipients. Approximately 40 gold and 350 silver medals were awarded (see Appendix III). Quincey was among the (uniformed) civilian recipients; a brief account of the circumstance of his awarding of the medal was kindly given by a reader of this story, Karl Spencer. Karl has in his possession a full list of police recipients.
The report provided by Karl stated, "Inspector Quincey was employed on actual plague work for a few days only, his state of health not permitting, but he rendered valuable services as an interpreter in obtaining information on all matters connected with the movements of the Chinese and otherwise."
On March 1, 1895, Quincey received his Plague Medal from Governor William Robinson at the parade ground of the Central Police Station together with Chief Inspector John Mathieson, and Inspectors George Hennessy, George Kemp, Alexander Mackie, John William Hanson, Aeneas Mann, and acting Inspector William Baker.
| [1] The 1855 Yunnan outbreak was later determined as the source of a major Bubonic plague pandemic known as the Third Plague Pandemic. The pandemic went on for the next 100 years rampantly killing more than 12 million people along the way. It wasn't until 1958 that the World Health Organization finally proclaimed it inactive, when the annual death toll dropped below 200. |
| [2] William Robinson 羅便臣, the 11th Governor, had it renewed for an additional month on June 9, 1894, and he went on to renewing it monthly until September 3, 1894, the day he revoked all proclamations remained in force, i.e. those dated May 10 and August 9. |
| [3] Clearly it was impossible for a team of 14 to undertake the task on its own. There were parallel spotting teams of deputized sanitary inspectors made up of personnel of the garrison. The visitation caused numerous complaints from the Chinese community for it was rumored that racketeering was rampant [paid up or got sent away], and far worse that the foreign sanitary inspectors had sinister and unspeakable desires on the women and children. A deputation of local residents petitioned William Robinson to call off the visitation. When that was denied, an anti-government poster campaign was launched. Robinson's reaction was to order the torpedo gunboat, HMS Tweed, to station off Tai Ping Shan, and offer an award for information leading to the arrest of persons engaged in the poster campaign. Overwhelmed and scared, those who could manage it, physically and/or financially, within Chinese community began a mass exodus to the Mainland. Robinson told the Home Government in his dispatch on June 20, 1894 that an estimation of 80,000 had departed. The abrupt labor scarce had crippled commercial interests in Hong Kong, he said. The distrust of the Hong Kong Government in its handling of plague patients was taken on a national level in China, and openly in the press. Here I've found an editorial published in the June 15, 1894 issue of North China Herald. Plague in Hong Kong: Brandy, Ice, and Floating Hospitals As for Hong Kong, the plague there is being dealt with solely by the foreign officials. A friend who arrived at Canton from that island yesterday, spoke of the enormous number of fatalities there, and the foreign methods of dealing with the plague, which appear to us ridiculous enough. He said that when a person is stricken with the plague at Hong Kong the foreign officials take them to the floating hospital moored in the mid-stream. First they make the patients swallow 12oz. of brandy, mixed with some kind of liquid medicine. Then they put six pounds of ice on top of the patient's head, while the chest, hands and feet are also loaded with a pound of ice each. In this manner, not one person out of ten manages to leave the floating hospital alive. Searchers are also sent during the day time into various dwelling-houses and if they happen to see some one in a recumbent position or taking a nap, he is pounced upon as having been plague-stricken, and the unlucky person is forcibly taken to the floating hospital where the remedies above mentioned his life is soon taken away. In this way numberless persons have met an undeserved fate. Chinese editorial in the North China Herald, Canton, June 15, 1894 [If the said Chinese editor were more learned, his view might carry a little bit more wright... about 12oz.?] |
Freemason
[Quincey was a Freemason. As well as a member, he held elected offices in various lodges under either the English or the Scottish Constitution: Steward, United Service Lodge, 1882; Steward, Eothen Mark Lodge, 1885; Steward, United Service Lodge, 1885; Junior Deacon, St. John's Lodge, 1889; Junior Deacon, Ararat Lodge of Royal Ark Mariners, 1892; Master Overseer, United Mark Lodge, 1892. There may be more but these are what I am able to find at this point of time. It is likely that Quincey became a Freemason once he was promoted to be a police inspector.(11/23/2017)]
| 1885 Officers of the Eothen Mark Lodge of Hongkong, #264 Worshipful Master: E. C. Ray (ship broker, Morris & Ray) Senior Warden: Erich Georg (broker, Cohen & Georg) Junior Warden: P. Jordan (clerk, C.P. Chater) M. Overseer: James Christie (chief engineer, China Navigation Co., Ltd.) S. Overseer: William Boffey (tailor, Lane, Crawford & C.) Chaplain: George C. Cox (sub-editor, Daily Press) Treasurer: H. N. Mody (auctioneer and broker; Justice of the Peace) Reg. of Marks: J. J. Gleeson (Sergeant-Major, vice president and financial secretary; Royal Naval Temperance Society) Secretary: A. O’D. Gourdin (clerk, The Chinese Insurance Co., Ltd.) Junior Deacon: Chasrles Grant (manager, Kelly & Walsh) Junior Deacon: Henry Clarke Director of Ceremonies: M. Falconer (watchmaker, G. Falconer) Inner Guard: C. J. Brown Steward — William Quincey Tyler: J. R. Grimble (engine driver, Fire Brigade) 1885 Officers of the United Service Lodge, #1341, E.C. Worshipful Master: J. Robertson Senior Warden: W. Goulbourne Junior Warden: George Rae (inspector of nuisances, Sanitary Department) Treasurer: James Hatcher (chief storeman, Royal Naval Yard) Secretary: G. J. W. King (clerk, Hong Kong Police Force) Senior Deacon: H. Clarke Junior Deacon: W. L. Ford Director of Ceremonies: C. G. Haly Organist: J. W. Hanson Steward: William Quincey Inner Guard: J. R. Grimble Tyler: J. Maxwell (engineer driver, Fire Brigade) 1889 Officers of the St. John's Lodge, #618, S.C. Worshipful Master: J. Mitchell (clerk, Butterfield & Swire) Deputy Master: John William Croker (d., Hong Kong 1902; assistant Patent Slip & Dock Co.) Worshipful Senior Warden: J. Stephen Worshipful Junior Warden: J.M. Laing (assistant, Kelly & Walsh) Treasurer: A.R. Madar (3rd clerk, Treasury, Hong Kong Government) Secretary: F. Howell (assistant bailiff, Supreme Court) Senior Deacon: John W. Kinghorn (engineer, Fire Brigade) Junior Deacon: William Quincey Organist: Director of Ceremonies: Charles John Francis Lesbirel (assistant, National Hotel) Steward: Hajee Ally Shirazee (broker; principal of Hajee Mahomed & Co.) Inner Guard: James Vanstone (b.1847-d.1921, Hong Kong; verger, St. John's Catheral) Tyler: J. Maxwell 1892 Officer of the Ararat Lodge of Royal Ark Mariners, #264, E.C. Worshipful Com. N: Paul Jordan Senior Warden J.: A. O’D. Gourdin Junior Warden S.: J. Bryant Treasurer: Pestonjee Bazonjee (manager, Habibbhoy, Ahmedbhoy, merchant) Scribe: A. R. Madar Senior Deacon: T. Spafford (storeman, Royal Naval Yard) Junior Deacon: William Quincey Guardian: Ezra Solomon (share and general broker) Warden: J. C. L. Rouch (hotel keeper) 1892 Officers of the United Mark Lodge, #419, E.C. Worshipful Master: W. Baker (signal sergeant, Marine Department) Senior Warden: J. Bryant Junior Warden: T. Spafford Master Overseer: William Quincey Senior Overseer: W. Bevan Junior Overseer: Hajee Ally Shirazee Chaplain: W.M.B. Arthur (first clerk, Land Office; committee, Horticultural Society) Treasurer: J. R. Grimble Registrar of Marks: W. Bidgood (overseer, Praya Reclamation Works Department) Secretary: J. White (sexton, St. John's Cathedral) Senior Deacon: W. Robinson Junior Deacon: W.H. Hawkings Director of Ceremonies: J.A. Inglis Inner Guard: S.T. Moore Tyler: J. Maxwell |
Bad Apples
| "Almost every member of the police was eager to be bribed, and willing to connive for money at infringements of the Law, especially of the Laws against gaming.", remarked Richard Graves MacDonnell 麥當奴, the 6th colonial governor (1866-1872), soon after he arrived in Hong Kong. |
 |
| Francis Henry May (center) |
Britain celebrated Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Joining the Jubilee Parade in London on June 22, 1897 were uniform men from colonies throughout the world, including a large contingent of HKPF officers and constables led by F. H. May's deputy [it was probably Francis Joseph Badeley]. The HKPF guard of honor, made up of European, Indian and Chinese, undertook a journey that lasted a couple of months, even though the London agenda was no more than 2 weeks. An event, promised to rock the HKPF like never before, began to unfold soon after the London-bound men had left Hong Kong. May had planned a police operation that he believed had better odds if executed during the months' long absence of these officers. He was to personally lead a major clamp down on gaming houses on the island. His second-in-command would be Acting Chief Inspector Alexander Mackie, a recruit from Scotland who joined the Force in 1872 at the rank of inspector[1]. Dozens of gaming houses were raid in June 1897 including one located at #3 East Street [known later as Tung Street 東街]. This particular raid became significant as May found what he suspected to exist, and most certainly wanting to seize -- the books of the largest Chinese gambling syndicate in Hong Kong, whose operation had included, among others, the gaming house at #2 Wah Lane in Sheung Wan 上環華里. Written in the books was a list of policemen who took bribes from the Wah Lane establishment, with underlying payoff details. The ledger named 14 Europeans, 38 Indian and 76 Chinese policemen on the take. The 14 Europeans included one chief inspector acting as deputy superintendent of police, 6 inspectors, one acting inspector, 4 sergeants and 2 acting sergeants. I would be quite surprised if all 14 of them weren't part of the guard of honor May had sent to London; he needed them out of the way so the raids could proceed in secrecy.
What followed was an in-house inquiry into the worst police scandal in the history of Hong Kong. May and Henry Lardner Dennys, Crown Solicitor (1896-1900), took charge. The panel was established at the Victoria Gaol and it wasn't until the end of August that the inquiries were concluded. Meanwhile, actions against convicted corrupted personnel were carried out as soon as they were found guilty. The following is what May wrote on February 10, 1898 in the HKPF Annual Report for the Year 1897, "One European Inspector was convicted of receiving bribes and sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment with hard labor. Three Inspectors and one Sergeant were dismissed. Two Inspectors and two Sergeant (one was Acting Inspector when the list was discovered) have been called upon to resigned. Two Sergeants and one Acting Sergeant were not re-engaged on the expiration of their terms of 5 years' service. One Acting Sergeant resigned. The Inspector, who was Acting as Deputy Superintendent, had already retired from the Force when the list was discovered."
I was hoping to compile a list of these 14 European officers, here are the bits and pieces I could manage to find: -
| Name | Rank | Remarks |
| Definite | ||
| Job Witchell 威祖 | inspector | was tried in court on a charge of receiving bribes and was subsequently given a 6-month imprisonment sentence on August 3, 1897. |
| William Baker 碧架 | inspector | was dismissed on August 23 for gross neglect of duty for not discovering and reporting a gaming house at #2 Wa Lane. Baker was in charge of Sheung Wan district and had been in the Force over 24 years. Baker was recruited from London in 1873, who joined HKPF as a 1st class police constable. Baker was a recipient of Hong Kong Plague Medal. In the official record, Baker was listed as compulsory retired on reduced pension on August 23, 1897. He received an annual pension payment of 361.65, which was 80% of his original entitlement, from 1897 till 1929. |
| George Hennessy 搴彌時 | inspector | took compulsory retirement on March 5, 1898 and was to immediately receive a pension of $656.47 per year till his death on September 8, 1912. Hennessy, hailed from Newmarket, Ireland, joined HKPF as a sergeant in 1873 via the London Metropolitan Police. Hennessy was so highly regarded by his peers that F.H. May had empowered him to undertake recruitment duties in Ireland. Hennessy was a recipient of Hong Kong Plague Medal. He returned home in Ireland after leaving HKPF. |
| John Holt 何露 | detective sergeant | was dismissed from the Force on August 24. There were some contradiction information on Holt, according to the Hong Kong Government Gazette of April 27, 1895, he was promoted to be inspector on April 26, 1895 and I have no idea how come he became a detective sergeant two years later. Holt's name was not found in the police pension list. |
| William Quincey 坤士 | detective inspector | [as you may have guessed it] was dismissed on August 25 for the same charges as Baker. Quincey had been in the force for over 27 years. [I noted with interest that Quincey was grouped under the category of European officers.] Quincey was listed as compulsory retired on reduced pension. A pension of $568.59 (80% of his entitlement) was paid to him from August 25, 1897 till, incredibly, 1924, a year after his death. |
| William Stanton 士丹頓 | detective inspector and head of detective division | was suspended on July 13 and dismissed from the Force on September 2, by order of the governor. Officially, Stanton was listed as compulsory retired on reduced pension on September 2, 1897. The pension payment of $555.52, which was 80% of his original entitlement, continued until 1909. Stanton joined HKPF as acting sergeant in 1873 via the London Metropolitan Police. Eager to salvage his reputation as a learned police expert, Stanton published a number of articles in the late 1890s concerning Triads in Hong Kong. The articles were compiled and published by Kelly and Walsh as a book in 1900, titled The Triads Society or Heaven and Earth Association. It has since become an influential resource for those studying the secret society in China, and its activities in Hong Kong. Stanton had claimed the book was based on his personal experience and first-hand observation as a front line policeman, yet according Barend J. ter Haar 田海, Chair Professor of Chinese Studies in Oxford and author of Ritual & Mythology of the Chinese Triads (1998), Stanton's book contained mostly translation of Triads manuals seized by the police. |
| Very Sure | ||
| Aeneas Mann | acting inspector | took compulsory retirement on March 5, 1898, pension payment of $415.15 per year from date of retirement till 1926. Mann's name was found on the Wah Lane pay off list. Mann was a recipient of the Plague Medal. |
| Very Likely, But Not Sure | ||
| Joseph Mathew Corcoran | inspector | took compulsory retirement on October 10, 1897, pension payment of $780.18 per year from date of retirement till 1908. Corcoran was one of the original London recruits in 1873, he was promoted to be an acting Inspector, 3rd class in November 1876. He was appointed Warden of Victoria Gaol (vice A. Grey, resigned) on March 5, 1977. He returned to HKPF in 1979 as Inspector 3rd class, and became Inspector, 2nd class in January 1880. |
| Tom Foord | sergeant | took compulsory retirement on March 5, 1898, pension payment of $250 per year from date of retirement; his name remained on the police pension record in 1939, the last pension list available before the outbreak of the Pacific War. |
| Dan Hall | sergeant | took compulsory retirement on March 5, 1898, pension payment of $224 per year from date of retirement till 1909. |
| Angus Macaulay | acting sergeant | took compulsory retirement on January 18, 1898, pension payment of $133.33 per year from date of retirement till his death on February 25, 1939. |
| Alexander McIver | detective sergeant | took compulsory retirement on December 25, 1897, pension payment of $201.07 per year from date of retirement till 1920. According to the Hong Kong Government Gazette of April 27, 1895, he was promoted to be inspector on April 26, 1895 along with John Holt. As in the case of Holt, he was to be listed as a detective sergeant two years later. |
| Possible | ||
| John Matheson | (former) chief inspector | [All I have on Matheson are circumstantial.] was one of the original Scottish recruits. He joined HKPF in 1872 as an inspector, third class. Mathieson was later promoted to be chief inspector, and appointed, in October 1892, acting Deputy Superintendent of Police and the Fire Brigade, sitting in for the original office bearer during (probably) a leave of absence. It was said that Mathieson was an outstanding policemen (except that he was on the take, allegedly), his distinguished service won him a gold medal [I am unsure if this was the Hong Kong Police Medal for Distinguished Service (PDSM)]. He was also a recipient of the Hong Kong Plague Medal. Mathieson retired in February 1895 and left Hong Kong on March 4 the same year. These fit the descriptions given by F.H. May, but then I could be completely mistaken. I also noted that his name was omitted from the pension list after having been posted for two years, viz. 1896 and 1897. That could only mean that either he died some time in 1897, or his pension had been stopped. |
May also gave an account of what transpired with respect to the Asiatic personnel. The 38 Indians were either sergeants or constables. 19 were dismissed and one was not allowed to re-engage. 17 were allowed to remain in the Force [one was not accounted for]. The 76 Chinese included sergeants interpreters, sergeant and constables. 26 were dismissed and 18 resigned. 32 were allowed to remain in the Force. There were thus 48 [sic.49] Asiatic policemen still serving whose name were on the payoff list [May might not be very good in counting, but what about the man who proofread his report before it was published.].
At the core of the scandal was the detective division, to which Quincey belonged. This no doubt is a textbook example of what wholesale corruption is, in that not only the division was entirely infested by dirty policemen, it was also the corruptor at source that had been corroding the rest of the Force. As could be expected, zero tolerance was given to the division. On July 13, Quincey, Stanton and other European officers were suspended, while dozens of Chinese detectives were arrested. Eight days later, two Chinese detective sergeants and 14 detectives were arrested on banishment warrants and three other detectives were found absconded. With that, the HKPF detective division was effectively cleared out[2]. All bad apples, the whole basket of them, were now gone.
For various reasons, the European community was sympathetic towards the convicted European officers, most particularly it was because they had done nothing that was harmful to the expatriate society. After all, the local gaming enterprises that they chose not to crack down victimized only the local populace. It was felt perhaps the European officers, at least the good ones, should be given a second chance. For example, Stanton, Hennessy and Quincey were given commendations by none other than May himself in his report of HKPF for the year 1895 (I would not be surprised if similar commendations also appeared in his 1896 report, except that I can't locate the file). One of the most respected residents in the colony at the time, Dr. James Cantile (b.1851-d.1926), who was the Dean of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (1888-1897) and the founding chairman of the British Medical Association, Hong Kong and China Branch (1890), and the famous rescuer of Sun Yat-sen (who were detained at the Qing Embassy in London from October 11 through 23, 1896), had this to say about the police scandal, "At the present moment there is considerable scandal in connection with the acceptance of bribes by European police, and men of great experience are being got ride of because they took 'tips'; surely a well-understood purloin of the police in all countries." Questions were raised on the wisdom behind the trying of former Inspector Job Witchell and the subsequent passing of a 6-month hard labor sentence, since he committed no worse crime than the other 13. Witchell pleaded clemency but it was neither granted nor even considered. This was clearly an unusually harsh punishment considering the others were exempted from criminal charges, and 11 of them were even put on the pension list including one former sergeant Tom Foord who would receive pension from the government for more than four decades, and possibly further on had it not been for the outbreak of war in Hong Kong. The European community was not impressed with May when Witchell's wife, Mary Powell Witchell, died while he was serving his jail sentence, leaving five children uncared for.
This sympathetic sentiment was certainly extended to Quincey, who was doubtless one of, if not the most, skillful PR person of his time in Hong Kong. Several newspapers, after he was sacked, went to the extent of praising his past achievements in the Force and told the readership how much he was missed in the society. Missed or not, Quincey's tenure in HKPF was over -- for good. Given Quincey's connection in the society, securing a good job in the commercial sector should be pretty easy. Even Job Witchell, who continued to reside in Hong Kong after getting out of jail, landed a job at the Deep Water Bay Brick Works, which was owned by the Green Island Cement Co. 青洲英泥, as manager. But not for Quincey. He liked police work.
| [1] The dual was rather like Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) and Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery) in the Untouchables. As in the case of Al Capone's accountant, Walter Payne (Jack Kehoe), Wa Lane's accountant, Sham Yeen (he was also the cashier responsible for the actual physical payoffs), was presented by the prosecution as a key witness in the May-Dennys Inquiry, and later at the trial of Job Witchell. Less fortunate than Payne, Sham Yeen received no bargain offer from the prosecution; he was given 9 months' imprisonment and a fine of $1,000, and eventual deportation to China after completing his prison term. Alexander Mackie was made chief inspector in 1898, and from September 1897 onward until his retirement in April 1903, he was appointed annually as acting Deputy Superintendent of Police and assistant Superintendent of the Fire Brigade as and when the office bearer went on leave of absence. |
| [2] There was at least one man remaining in the otherwise cleared out detective division. Acting sergeant Thomas Henry Gidley, most recently appointed to the division on June 16, 1897, was either too new to be contaminated or was, possibly, a snitch May had planted in the division in the eve of the stormy operation. He was made inspector within a couple of years, but died on April 28, 1904 at the young age of 31. He joined HKPF before 1893 as a constable and was made ward master of the hospital hulk, the Hygeia, in 1894, responsible for admitting plaque patients from the Tung Wah Hospital and for caring them all the way till death. His diligent work won him a plague medal, but most unfortunately, he lost one of his two children, the four years old Eugenie Esmerelda Ernestine Gidley, to the plague. Gidley was a warder of the Victoria Gaol prior to the appointment in the detective division. So who ran the Detective Division after Stanton? Initially, it was Inspector George Kemp. He was succeed on October 11, 1897 by Inspector John William Hanson, who was previously the commander of Water Police. Hanson's post had a new name, i.e. Chief Detective Inspector. Both Kemp and Hanson were recipients of the Hong Kong Plague Medal. Additionally, Hanson received a first-class Police Medal and the King's Police Medal (1911). During his tenure in HKPF, he handled a number of complicated cases and one of them was the 1901 Gage Street Murder. School master and republican revolutionist Yeung Ku-wan, a.k.a. Yeung Kui-wan, {Yang Quyun} 楊衢雲 was gun down by emissaries from Canton on January 10, 1901 at his resident at #52 Gage Street. Yeung died at the Government Civil Hospital the following day. The lead assassin was quickly identified to be a Chan Lam {Chen Lin} 陳林, a staffer of De Shou, the Viceroy of Liangguang 兩廣總督德壽. Chan made his way back to Canton and no further action was taken by HKPF to the best of my knowledge. The case also marked the first political assassination in Hong Kong. Hanson was born in the United States. His father was originally from Denmark, and his mother Ireland. He was 17 years old, a sailor by profession, when he came to Hong Kong in 1874. He went to see Captain Superintendent Deane and asked for a job, and he was hired. Hanson [probably] was the first American officer in HKPF. Hanson retired in 1911 and was succeeded by Albert Collett. John Grant was appointed on October 2, 1923. Timothy Murphy was appointed on November 2, 1926. Murphy retired in 1938 and at that point I decided to end further researches on this subject. |
Pioneering Police Work in China
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| Undated photo of an "old" law enforcement unit, the photo caption reads "The Peking Police Force". |
The first modern police force in Qing China was created in 1854. Sadly, it didn't belong to Kuang-hsu and the Qing government had no control over it. The Shanghai Municipal Police 上海公共租界巡捕房 was a police unit created by the Shanghai Municipal Council 上海公共租界工部局. It was headed by a HKPF officer seconded to the British Settlement in Shanghai, named Samuel Clifton[1]. Inspector Clifton left Hong Kong in August 1854 with 31 European policemen and estabslihed himself a couple of days later in Shanghai as Superintendent Clifton. The SMPF had since then grown in proportion to the size of the foreign population in the Settlement, more so to the ever increasing number of crimes that had taken place there. By 1936, the force had reached the strength of 4,700 men including nearly 3,500 Chinese. SMPF, and the whole of the Shanghai International Settlement, came under Japanese control in December 1941 in coherence with the Pearl Harbor attack. The force came to its final end when it was disbanded in February 1943.
In 1898, Kuang-hsu's wish had come true, not only had he got his modern police force, but also a whole package of reforms to modernize his empire. Since loosing to Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War (War of Jiawu) 甲午戰爭 in 1895, the young emperor had allowed himself to be surrounded by reformers, who advocated that procuring technological modernization alone, which the nation had been actively engaged in since after the First Opium War, would not assure the sustainability of the Da Qing Empire. What was needed was a daring structural reform that should go from government structure, to education, to macroeconomics management, to industrialization, and to the dismantlement of feudal military organization. What Kuang-hsu was hoping to get, I can only image, was a Chinese version of the Meiji Restoration.
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| Huang Tsun-hsien. Credit: evi. |
Shanghai
How the following event was connected to the now subdued 100 Days' Reform is something I am not working on (at least not yet), but clearly, there ought to be some connection somewhere. In December 1898, which was three months after the young emperor's incapacitation and fifteen months after William Quincey's ignominious exit from the HKPF, the former detective inspector received a telegram from the Taotai 道台 of Shanghai, Tsai Gun, {Cai Jun} 蔡鈞. The Mayor of Shanghai [Qing China did not have a mayor position in its government structure, but as far as the function of the office goes, mayor is the closest equivalent, I reckon, to Taotai] had asked Quincey to go to Shanghai and start up a modern police force for him, oddly, to be known as the Taotai Police. Quincey quickly accepted the appointment and proceeded to Shanghai with five former HKPF officers, all Indians, including Jemadar Fakeer Mahomed, a HKPF pensioner (left the force on May 28, 1989, expiry of service), who would become his second-in-command. Tsai placed under Quincey's (Superintendent Quincey's, to be exact) control 50 of his paramilitary men, who would make up the new police force. Quincey was quick in getting the men organized, four most promising constables were promoted to be sergeants and the rest divided into three classes according to their abilities. He also got rid of Tsai's paymaster who had been "squeezing" no less than 20% of salary paid to the Chinese constables, so that his men were now getting the full amount of what they were promised. Two stations, each with barracks attached, were established. The central station was about half-way up the Bund, and a district station at the far southern end of the Bund. He armed the Indians with Winchester repeating rifles and the Chinese with truncheons. The men of the Taotai Police was praised, before long, as being well trained and disciplined and in these two areas, they were said to be as good as their counterparts in the Shanghai Municipal Police. So far I was unable to find documents that explained how Quincey's police interfaced with the existing Xunjian (the original law enforcement agent) in Shanghai, but found reports that said that the new police force was effective in maintaining order in the local quarters of the city and in dealing with crimes, except those involving crime syndicates, as syndicates paid well-placed city officials for protection (something surely Quincey wasn't unfamiliar with). The detective branch, although existing, was completely functionless because of the overwhelming oppositions from the local gentry, who feared that their own shady affairs might become targets of investigation.
Despite Quincey's experience and dedication, the Taotai Police, arguably the authentic version of China's first modern police force, was making steady progress towards dissolution, if only slowly. What it was up against was the increasing voices opposing Tsai's reform (the modern police unit including) within the city bureaucratic mechanism, which had been persistent all along. To make thing worse, Quincey's employer and close ally, Taotai Tsai, was removed from Shanghai in 1899 due to his hardline attitude towards the foreign diplomatic corps, after disengaging himself in discussions in which the foreign powers demanded an expansion to the International Settlements. I found no pre-twentieth-century record of the Taotai Police in any of my Chinese reference sources, but one particular entry in the Shanghai Chronicle drew my attention. In 1895, the local gentry, through public subscription, had established an engineering company to take care of roadworks in the southern part of Shanghai. The company was named 上海南市馬路工程局 (loosely translated as Road Engineering Bureau of Southern Shanghai). Three notable events took place in the company in 1898. First, it was renamed 上海南市馬路工程善后局, with the word "Engineering" replaced by "Maintenance". Secondly, it started charging a toll for all vehicles using roads constructed and maintained by the company. Thirdly, it added a police unit, named 中國巡捕房 China Xunbufang (loosely translated as the China Police Force, "CPF"). The CPF included in its force six Indian sergeants and 50 constables, the latter were paramilitary men seconded from the 江蘇撫標滬軍營 (loosely translated as the Kiangsu Governor's Own Shanghai Battalion). It further said that CPF had established three stations along the Bund. I find it not unconvincing to think that the CPF and the Taotai Police were but the same. The next question is: had former detective inspector Quincey expanded his forte to include traffic control?
Quincey, in 1899, occupied a house at #102, Bubbling Well Road, which had an assessed value of 300 tls. (which I gather means 300 tales of silver) [cit]
Paoting and Tientsin
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| 1900s photo of officers and constables of TSPD's Ho-tse Precinct 菏澤縣巡警局 . Credit: share.iclient.ifeng.com. |
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| Policemen at Tientsin, 1912. Handwritten description on back reads, "Chinese City Police. These men were semi-militay. They were trained by W. Quincey [one of General Gordon's protegees] and his assistants,who were ex-London Metropolitan Police. They were pretty good at their work & well thought of. Actually they were the nucleus of China's modern police." |
| The 1905 “Directory and Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, and etc.” lay out the structure of the Tientsin City Police as follows: Commissioner: Chao Ping-chun (Tsao Kai-cheong was dismissed for corruption in April 1903; Chao was reappointed commissioner) Superintendent: William Quincey; E. Lugoski Assist Superintendent: W. Ross(quite likely William Ross who was in the Shanghai Municipal Police between 1894 and 1902); L. Tamadah; Ghal Hassan Shah 4 Indian sergeants 50 Indian constables 10 Chinese divisional captains 10 Chinese divisional lieutenants 80 Chinese sergeants 2,400 Chinese constables 50 mounted constables 50 water police City Police Brass Band 30 Chinese musicians 1 Chinese band master 1 trumpter major 2 band sergeants |
Tsinanfu
The early success of the PPD and later the TCPD had caught the attention of Shantung {Shandong} governor Chou Fu {Zhou Fu} 山東巡撫周馥 (1902-1904). Since prior to the Shantung appointment, Chou was the lieutenant governor of Chili working under Yuan, it was easy for him to ask his former boss to have Quincey transferred to Tsinanfu (Jinan) 濟南, the provincial capital of Shantung. Helping Quincey to put together and train the men of the Jinan Central Police Department 濟南巡警總局 was a young man named Hsisan C. Liu 劉錫三, born Liu Chin {Liu Jun} 劉晉, who had some military background and was a friend of Quincey's son, Charles[6]. A Han Bannerman and civil officer, Santschi-uh {Shang Qiheng} 尚其亨, was appointed the supervisory commissioner of the JCPD 濟南巡警總局督辦, and as commissioner 濟南巡警總局總辦, Han Yaozeng 韓耀曾, an army officer and military theorist, who when served under the command of Yuan, co-authored China's first military training manual, 訓練練操法詳晰圖說, literally translated as "The Illustrated Manual of (Army) Training and Exercise". Three police academies were established in cities where Quincey set foot. There are no records that showed he was involved with the founding of these schools, but it doesn't mean he wasn't. The Paoting Police Academy 保定警務學堂 was established in May 1902, which was followed by the Tientsin Police Academy 天津警務學堂 four months later. In 1903, the Paoting school was merged into the one in Tientsin, and a new name of Beiyang Police Academy 北洋巡警學堂 was adopted. It was again merged into the Paotingfu Police Academy 保定府巡警學堂 in May 1911. In Shantung, the Tsinanfu Police Academy 濟南警務學堂 was established in May 1903; it was renamed the Shantung Police Academy 山東巡警學堂 in 1906. Quincey was listed as the Superintendent of the Settlement Police in 1908, and the police force under his purview was rather small: two Indian constables and 40 Chinese ones. [cit]
| There was an interesting minor international incident in Jinan in 1905 following Quincey's taking charge of the police force there. Several German officials in Shandong complained to the Qing authorities about the appointment of Quincey who they supposed to be an Englishman. The Qing Governor responded to the Germans by stating that 'though Quincey might be said to be somewhat Anglicized, he nevertheless was a proper Chinese.' The North-China Herald's correspondent in Jinan went on to quote the Qing officials in his report for the May 12, 1905 newspaper, "Many of your readers doubtless know Mr Quincey and are aware that he is truly Chinese, having been born in Soochow, from which place he was taken to England by General Gordon, after the Taiping rebellion, and educated there, becoming while abroad a naturalised British subject. He dresses in European clothes, wears no queue and speaks excellent English." [cit] |
Back To Shanghai
In 1910, Quincey returned to Shanghai[7], the city he had regarded home ever since leaving Hong Kong in 1898 (for good). At the age of 63, he accepted an appointment to be the superintendent of the Shanghai Nanking Railway Police. Railway police 鐵路巡警, in the sense of a police unit established and controlled by the relevant railway authority, independent of the government police system, was a product of 1910[8]. Bianluo Raiway (Kaifeng-Luoyang Railway) 汴洛鐵路, a railway built and controlled by the Belgium established in 1910 a small police force of its own to maintain order at the train stations. Dianyue Railway (Kunming-Hekou Railway) 滇越鐵路, a railway built and controlled by the French had its established on March 15, 1910. It was named Dianyue Railway Police 滇越铁路巡警.
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| Arthur W.U. Pope, General Manager (2nd) posted with Chung Mun-yew, Chinese Head Commissioner (center) and other officer on April 1, 1908 in Shanghai at the opening of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway. Credit: The Thistle and the Jade. |
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| This was how Chung Mun-yew (center) looked in 1880. Believe it! He was coxswain for the Yale Varsity Crew in 1880 and 1881. The team won both years against Harvard in the annual boat races (after having lost three straight years). Credit: Voice of America. |
I do not know what role he played in China's transition from dynastic autocracy to republic, but do know that his insight into what's going on in China, particularly in relation to Shanghai, during the Republic Revolution and the Warlord Era that followed was sought after by his British employer, who would without any doubt report such intelligence to the appropriate civil and military agencies in London. I also don't know where Quincey was and what part he played, if any, when the Kuomintang founding president, Sung Chiao-jen (Song Jiaoren) 宋教仁 was shot by a lone gunman on March 20, 1913 at the Shanghai Station of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway when getting ready to board a train. Sung was rushed to the Shanghai-Nanking Railway Hospital 滬寧鐵路醫院 where he died two days later. The 31 years old idealistic politician had just led the KMT to victory in China's first democratic election. Sung was anxious to introduce into the young republic the cabinet system of the government, which from the prospective of ROC president at the time, Yuan Shih-kai, was a clear and present threat to his power. Within a short while after the shooting, several suspects were apprehended by the French Garde Municipale[11] and the assassin was duly identified by the British staff of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway (one of them Quincey, possibly). He was an active revolutionary and a KMT member named Wu Shiying 武士英 (born Wu Fuming 吳福銘). Further investigations revealed that Wu took order from Ying Guixin 應桂馨, a Shanghai gang boss, who was formerly head of the personal security detail of Sun Yat-sen, and, at the time of his own arrest, held the title of Brevet Chief of Police of Kang-su (Jiangsu) 江蘇巡查總長. Several government officials were implicated in the assassination case, the most senior of them was the premier in Yuan's government, Chao Ping-chun 趙秉鈞 (his name appeared earlier in this story as the first police chief of Paoting Police Department, which Quincey helped establish in 1902). Wu and Ying were soon transferred from the custody of the SMPF to the ROC authority. Wu was poisoned and died while being kept in prison, which, ironically, was named the Model Prison of Shanghai 上海模範監獄. Ying broke out of the "Model Prison" months later but found himself the victim of assassination in January 1914. He was hacked to death on board a train bound for Tsintsin. Chao, ROC's third premier (after Tang Shaoyi 唐紹儀 and Lou Tseng-Tsiang (Lu Zhengxiang), a.k.a. Pierre-Celestin Lou 陸徵祥), was demoted four months after Sung's death to be the Governor of Chihli. On February 27, 1914, he was found death in his office in Tsintsin, allegedly poisoned. All loose ends were thus tied; Sung's assassination case remained cold forever.
On a lighter note, I know Quincey was in good health, happy in Shanghai, and remained, every ounce of him, a favorite of the news media. If that wasn't the case, why would the Straits Times in Singapore ran a story On March 6, 1913 telling its readership that a railway police chief far way in Shanghai was about to take a vacation, and that he enjoyed sports? Here's the story, "Inspector W. Quincey of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway, after having completed three years' service had been granted two months' leave of absence which he intended to spend in Hankow visiting his two sons, ... He is the goal-keeper for the Railway Football Club and though over sixty years of age he is still hale and hearty, and rides a bicycle, besides taking long walks into the country."
| [1] Samuel Clifton, an officer of the 67th Regiment (or a major in the 89th Regiment[a]), came to Hong Kong in 1846, where he met Elizabeth Quin[b], a woman he would quickly married. He left the army and found himself a post in HKPF as a clerk. He was listed as a deputy police inspector in 1850. Six years on as police chief of the Shanghai International Settlement, Clifton was indicted for fraud and extortion in 1860. He was acquitted due to lack of evidence and remained in Shanghai after his involuntary resignation from SMPF. | ||
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| [3] Two common mistakes were found in all the Chinese sources on the internet I have reviewed when making reference to Quincey in relation to his PPD involvement. First: Quincey is mistaken as a Cantonese naturalized as a British subject; secondly, Quincey's Chinese name is mistaken as 王昆士, as this is really the Chinese phonetic translation of “Wong Quincey”. His Chinese name was Wang Chin-nien, and I have as yet the fortune of deciphering it in Chinese. | ||
| [4] Tsao Kai-cheong | ||
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| [7] Quincey was listed as Superintendent of the City Police in Shanghai in the 1904 issue of Who's Who, an Alphabetical List of Foreign Residents and Hong Employers in Shanghai, and Outports. This means I'll have to put on my researcher's cap and do more digging. | ||
| [8] The first railway police force, which was part of the government law enforcement system in China, appeared in 1888. Militiamen were hired by the government to guard the stations between Tongshan {Tangshan} 唐山 and Tientsin of the Jingfeng Railway (Peking-Fengtien (Shenyang) Railway)京奉鐵路. They were replaced by soldiers of regular army in 1900. The soldiers were further replaced by security guards and students of the nearby police academy in 1905. A railway police department, with three stations, was established in 1906. The department took its command from the Viceroy of Chihli, however all expenses were to be paid for by the railway authority. | ||
| [9] (British) Railway Officials of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway in the year 1908: J.D. Smart, Chairman, Board of Commissioners (Sub-manager, HSBC in Shanghai); Charles Edward Anton, Board of Commissioners (Director, Jardine, Matheson & Co. 1911-18); Arthur William Uglow Pope, General Manager (Railway engineer, previously Traffic Superintendent of the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway in India); Herbert Edgar Middleton, Chief Accountant (Accountant, Shanghai Municipal Council since 1907); Herbert Pinckney Winslow, Deputy Traffic Manager (Appointed manager, British Section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway in 1911; the Winslow Street 溫思勞街 in Hong Kong was named in his honor); Frank Ware Dees, Executive Engineer; Ivan Tuxford, Headquarters Assistant Engineer; William S. Andrews, Acting Chief Storekeeper; John George Barkley; A.C. Clear; Alfred Howe Collinson (civil engineer); Edwin James Dunstan (locomotive designer); W.J. Grey; F. Grove; M.R. Sinclair and; K.D. Tweedie. | ||
| [10] | ||
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| [a] Clifton probably came from another army unit since the 89th Foot had never served in China, and the 67th only came out to the Far East after 1858, and China in 1860. |
| [b] Elizabeth Quin was the daughter of James Quin, an ex-soldier who came to Hong Kong in 1845 and found employment with the government as second clerk in the magistrates' court. Elizabeth's brother, William Quin, was Captain Superintendent of HKPF from 1862 to 1867. He was succeeded by Walter Meredith Deane, the chief who helped make Quincey's career in HKPF. |
A Full and Colorful Life
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| 1920 photo of Quincey and Ku Hung-ming {Gu Hongming} 辜鴻銘. A Malaysian-Chinese, Ku was a reknowned scholar and an advocate of monarchy and Confucian values. He was a professor of English Literature at the Peking University at the time of this photo. Credit: National Galleries of Scotland. |
He was well-liked and had made a lot of friends in and outside China. A newsies' favorite subject, he was probably the policeman with the most media coverage in the Far East of his time; it began on August 21, 1880 when he was made inspector of HKPF and ended 43 years later on August 25, 1923, the day next following his death, always speaking favorably about him - no matter what. William W. Quincey lived a full and colorful life, from one of an orphan to prosperity with outstanding descendants.
| [1] Quincey was previously listed as owner of a house located at #102 Bubbling Well Road 靜安寺路 (present day Nanjing west Road 南京西路) in 1899. His close neighbors had included the most prominent Western residents in Shanghai: Brodie Augustus Clarke (merchant; Major Commandant, Shanghai Volunteer Corps, vice G.J. Morrison), Duncan McNeill (Crown Advocate, British Supreme Court for China and Corea), Gabriel James Morrison (civil engineer; Major Commandant, SVC), Louis Rocher (Commissioner, Shanghai Maritime Customs), and John Herrick McMichael (Director, Cathay Trust Ltd. and later the inaugural president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai). The property was bought in 1900 by one Thomas Lacey Bickerton who built and operated a sixty room hotel on the site, which he named Bickerton Hotel. |
Chronology of the Quincey Family
(Note: This is more detailed than what would usually be included in a family chronology as I have also added events showing significant personal achievements, and sometime failures, of members of the family. Additionally, selected world and regional events are inserted to the table as reference)
[I am still working on this. It probably will take another week or so to finish.(10/27/2022)]
| Year | Event | ||||
| ca.1848 or 1851 | Quincey was born in Quinsan | ||||
| 1850 | Taipin Rebellion began | ||||
| ca.1862 - ca.1864 | Quincey was found and taken in by Charles Gordon | ||||
| 1864 | Taipin Rebellion ended | ||||
| Quincey was taken to England by Charles Gordon | |||||
| 1869 | Quincey was baptised in Malta | ||||
| 1870 | Quincey joined the Hong Kong Police Force, either as a sergeant or was later promoted to the position of sergeant | ||||
| ca.1872 | Quincey married Catherine Tan in Hong Kong (TBC) | ||||
| 1873 | Thomas William Quincey, Quincey's first child, was born in Hong Kong | ||||
| 1876 | Margaret Wong Quincey, Quincey's first daughter, was born in Hong Kong (TBC) | ||||
| 1880 | Quincey was promoted to the position of police inspector | ||||
| 1880 -1887 | Quincey became the first Chinese policeman in HKPF to carry a firearm on a regular basis | ||||
| 1881 | Mary Agnes Wong-Quincey, Quincey third child, was born in Hong Kong | ||||
| 1882 | Peter Quincey Wong, Quincey's fourth child, was born in Hong Kong | ||||
| 1883 | Quincey became a naturalized British subject (within the limite of Hong Kong) | ||||
| 1884 | Quincey was further promoted to be detective-inspector | ||||
| 1885 | Quincey assumed the Masonry position of steward with the Eothen Mark Lodge of Hong Kong as welll as the United Service Lodge of East China | ||||
| 1887 | Quincey was charged with manslaughter for having shot and killed a bystander while firing at an escaping thief. The charge was afterward dropped | ||||
| John Wong-Quincey, Quincey's fifth child, was born in Hong Kong | |||||
| 1889 | Quincey assumed the Masonry position of junior deacon with the St. John's Lodge of South China | ||||
| 1892 | Quincey assumed the Masonry position of junior deacon with the Ararat Lodge of Royal Ark Marines, Eat China; and master overseers with the Inited Mark Lodge, East China | ||||
| 1893 | Lewis Patrick (better known as Patrick) Wong-Quincey, Quincey's sixth child, was born in Shanghai (TBC) | ||||
| 1894 | Plague pandemic in Hong Kong | ||||
| Quincey was the first perosn in Hong Kong to warn the government of an imminent plague infestation, at a meeting with the Sanitary Board. He was later deputized, along with 12 others, by the police chief as a sanitray officier. Thieir duties were to spot infected perosons and removed them to quarantine facilities | |||||
| Thomas, who had been with the Hong Kong Civil Service for several years, was appointed second Chinese Clerk and Interpreter in the Registrar General's Office | |||||
| ca.1894 | Thomas married Zeng Suxia, Mary, in Hong Kong | ||||
| 1895 | Quincey was awarded the Hong Kong Plague Medal for his plague fighting works | ||||
| Wang Guoxiu, Thomas's first child, a daughter, was born in Hong Kong | |||||
| ca.1896 (TBC) | Margaret married George Ingram (TBC) | ||||
| 1897 | Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee | ||||
| Quincey was dismissed from the HKPF on bribery charges | |||||
| Thomas was dismissed from the Registrar's Office on bribery charges | |||||
| 1898 | Quincey was invited to Shanghai to form a police force for the Taotai (mayor) known as the Taotai Police | ||||
| 1899 | The Boxer Rebellion began | ||||
| 1901 | The Boxer Rebellion ended | ||||
| Charles, who served in the First Chinese Regiment (a British Army Regiment formed in British Weihaiwei) as sergeant interpreter, was awarded the Chinese Medal 1900 with clasp "Relief of Pekin" for fighting against Qing China duing the Boxer Rebellion | |||||
| 1902 | Quincey was invited to go to Paoting to establish a modern police force, and months later from there onto Tientsin to form the Tientsin City Police in which he was given the position of superintendent. Before the years ened, he was seconded to Jinan to establish the Jinan Central Police Department | ||||
| ca.1902 | Peter was appointed Medical Officer in the Sanitary Department of Jinan | ||||
| 1903 | Peter, while atttending the Hong Kong College of Medecine for Chinese, was appointed by the Government Bacteriologist as an laboratory assistant | ||||
| Mary married Lawrence Bernard Boyack in Teintsin | |||||
| Gordon K.C. Wang, Thomas' second child, was born in Peking | |||||
| 1904 | Christopher Quincey Wong, Peter's first child, was born in Tientsin (TBC). He died in Tientsin, probably infant death | ||||
| 1906 | Thomas was the sub-manager of Taching Government Bank (Chinese Central Bank) in Hankow; two years later he was promoted to be the branch manager | ||||
| Cecilia Boyack, Mary's first child, was born in Hankow | |||||
| ca.1906 | Phyllis Quincey Wong, later Sister Mary Terresita, Peter's second child, was born in Hong Kong | ||||
| 1908 | Quincey was removed from the mainstream Chinese ploice hierarchy and was appointed superintdnent of the Jinan Settlement Police | ||||
| Martin Paul Quincey Wong, Peter's third child, was born in Taiwan | |||||
| 1909 | Florence Agnes Boyack, Mary's second child, was born in Hankow | ||||
| 1910 | Quincey returned to Shanghai and became the superintendent of the Shanghai Nanking Railway Police | ||||
| Thomas was the branch manager of the Taching Government Bank in Szechuen | |||||
| John went to England to attend the University of London | |||||
| Peter became the resident surgeon of the Public Chinese Hospital, a.k.a. Shanghai Hospital, in Shanghai | |||||
| 1911 | Wuchang Uprising, Provisional Military Government of the the Republic of China established | ||||
| John became the editor/co-editor of two magazines published in London, viz. The East and the West; The Chinese Review | |||||
| Peter was appointed a deputy of the Chinese delegation at the International Plague Conference held in Mukden | |||||
| ca.1911 | John became the first Chinese member of the British Institute of Journalists | ||||
| 1912 | ROC established | ||||
| The Imperial Edict of the Abdication of the Qing Emperor was endorsed by Empress Dowager Longyu, without the knowledge of Emperor Puyi | |||||
| Agnes Boyack, Mary's third child, was born in Hankow | |||||
| ca.1912 | John was appointed a member of the Chinese Finance Commission for Europe | ||||
| 1913 | Thomas was the manager of the Singapore branch of the Bank of Communications | ||||
| John received an AB degree from the University of London, but only returned to China in the year next following | |||||
| Patrick worked for the Hanyang Iron Works as a secretary | |||||
| Chalres worked for the Hanyang Iron Works as the chief electrician | |||||
| ca.1913 (TBC) | Peter worked for the County Hospital in Daye, a county 85 km south east of Hanyang (TBC) | ||||
| 1914 | World War One began | ||||
| John was hired by the Tsing Hua College in Peking as an English teacher and head of the Western Lanauage Department | |||||
| 1915 | Thomas Bernard Boyack, Mary's fourth child, was born in Hankow | ||||
| 1916 | John was appointed Dean of Studies of Tsing Hua | ||||
| 1918 | World War One ended | ||||
| ca.1918 (TBC) | James Boyack, Mary's fifth child, was born in Hankow | ||||
| 1919 | Paris Peace Conference | ||||
| 1920 | Patrick married Anna Magdalene Anderson in Shanghai. Anna died in 1936 in Shanghai. Patrick later married Irene Pearl | ||||
| ca.1920 | John married Sze Vong-tsu | ||||
| 1921 | Thomas was the branch manager of the Bank of Canton in Shanghai | ||||
| John was appointed president of the Tsing Hua College; he held the post until April 1922 | |||||
| John published his first book, titled Educational Guide to the United States: for Use of Chinese and other Oriental Students | |||||
| Leonora (Nora) Patricia Quincey, Patrick' first child, was born in Shanghai | |||||
| ca.1921 (TBC) | Dorothy Boyack, Mary's sixth child, was born in Hankow. She was the wife of Howard Banter. She died in San Jose, CA | ||||
| 1922 | Vera Wong-Quincey, John's first child, was born in Peking | ||||
| William Gordon Quincey, Patrick' second child, was born in Shanghai | |||||
| 1923 | Quincey died in Shnaghai | ||||
| 1924 | Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City | ||||
| ca.1924 | Vivien Wong-Quincey, John's second child was born in Peking | ||||
| 1926 | John was appointed professor of the Department of Western Literature of the newly established Tsing Hua University; and he was later elected dean of the department | ||||
| 1927 | John attended the Yale University to read screenwriting; in the same year, he wrote his first play: Coup d’etat in Peking | ||||
| 1928 | Terrence Hugh Quincey, Patrick' third children, was born in Shanghai. Terrence married Shella Wood Thomas. They had a son, Brett, and two grandsons, James and Christopher | ||||
| 1929 | Plague pandemic in Hong Kong was over; although only 44 cases were reported in 1945, the plague kept coming back near each year until 1929 | ||||
| 1931 | Gordon K.C. Wang, Thomas' son, received a master degree in political science from the Columbia University | ||||
| ca.1932 (TBC) | Agnes Boyack, daughter of Mary, married Frank Richard Bell | ||||
| 1933 | Lawrence Berand Boyack, Mary's husband, was honored with an OBE | ||||
| ca.1933 (TBC) | Shelia Jean Bell, first daughter of Agnes Boyack and granddaughter of Mary was born | ||||
| 1935 | Thomas was the manager of the Singapore branch of Bank of China | ||||
| Lawrence Berand Boyack, Mary's husband, was awarded a British Empire Medal | |||||
| Gordan K.C. Wang, son of Thomas, married Huang Xiatong, Grace, in Shanghai | |||||
| Phyllis Quincey Wong, later Sister Mary Terresita, Peter's daugther, died in Monrovia, CA. | |||||
| ca.1935 (TBC) | Elizabeth (Dinny) Bell, second daughter of Agnes Boyack and granddaughter of Mary was born | ||||
| ca.1936 | Wang Shifang, first son of Gordan K.C. Wang and grandson of Thomas, was born in Shanghai | ||||
| 1937 | Marco Polo Bridge incident, Japan's invasion of China began | ||||
| Peking fell to Japanese attack, and came under Japanese occupation. | |||||
| Shanghai fell to Japanese attack, and came under Japanese occupation; the International Settlement became an island | |||||
| Wang Pinghua, second son of Gordan K.C. Wang and grandson of Thomas, was born in Shanghai | |||||
| ca.1937 | John moved to Teintsin with his family and took refuge in the British Settlement there (TBC) | ||||
| John moved again this time to Shanghai where he was offered a tenure at the St. John's University as a professor in the English Department (TBC) | |||||
| Martin Paul, Peter's son, married Helene Catherine Leong | |||||
| 1938 | Cyril Quincey Wong, first son of Martin Paul and grandson of Peter, was born in Hong Kong. He died in Westchester, NY. | ||||
| ca.1940 | Vera Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, went to the United States to attend the Morningside College, Sioux City, IA | ||||
| 1941 | Japanese navy air service bombed Pearl Harbor; the Pacific War began | ||||
| Japanese troops entered and occupied the International Settlement in Shanghai | |||||
| Hong Kong fell to Japanes attack, and came under Japanese occupation | |||||
| Thomas Bernard Boyack, Mary's fourth child, died in Kuala Lumpur | |||||
| 1942 | Martin Wilton Wong Quincey, second son of Martin Paul and grandson of Peter, was born in Hong Kong. He died in San Francisco, CA. | ||||
| 1943 | Internment in Shanghai (1943 -1945) Chapei Camp: Mary's daughters, Cecilia Lucy Boyack and Agnes Marjorie Boyack and her husband Francis Richard Bell, daughters Sheila Jean and Elizabeth A. (Dinny) Pootung Camp: Patrick's son William Gordon Yangchow C Camp: Patrick, his wife Pearl Irene, daughter Leonora and son Terrence Hugh | ||||
| Leonora Patricia Quincey, Patrick' daughter, married Robert George John Bulldeath while being interned. | |||||
| 1944 | Vera Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, received a BA degree from the Morningside College; after having been awarded Barbour Scholarship for Oriental Women, she enrolled inthe University of Michigan Medical School | ||||
| 1945 | Japan surrendered; the Pacific War ended | ||||
| Chinese Civil War began | |||||
| James Boyack, Mary's fifth child, died in Japan | |||||
| 1947 | John was appointed dean of the English Department of the St. John's University, Shanghai | ||||
| 1948 | John returned to Hong Kong with Vong-tsu | ||||
| Peter died in Hong Kong | |||||
| Vera Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, received a MD degree from the University of Michigan; after undertaking an internship at the Harper Hospital in Detroit, she returned to the University Hospital of U-M for her pediatrics residency | |||||
| 1949 | Chinese Civil War ended; PRC established | ||||
| Thomas died in Shanghai | |||||
| John (and Vong-tsu) went to the United States after becoming a Fullbright Travel Grantee, and having been invited by the University of Michigan to conduct research work in Chinese literature and culture | |||||
| 1950 | Gordon K.C. Wang, Thomas' son, was appointed Chair of the Economics Department of the Catholic University of Peking; he later held the same position in the Tsing Hua University | ||||
| 1950s | Vera Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, married Liu Vi-cheng in Ann Arbor; Liu later became a professor of Aerospace Engineering Department in the University of Michigan | ||||
| Vivien Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, married Lu Cho-ju, Daniel, a Yale professor (TBC) specialized in nuclear physics. They have two children | |||||
| 1951 | Vivien Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, received a Master of Art degree from the University of Michigan | ||||
| 1952 | John was appointed a visiting professor of English at the Spelman College, Atlanta, GA | ||||
| Michael John Carroll (adopted name), son of Terrence Hugh Quincey and grandson of Patrick was born in Christchurch, NZ. Michael is married to Diane | |||||
| 1953 | Gordon K.C. Wang, Thomas' son, was a founder and the inaugural dean of the English Language Deaprtment of the University of the International Business and Economics in Beijing | ||||
| ca.1958 (TBC) | Shelia Jean Bell, daughter of Agnes Boyack and granddaughter of Mary married (first name unk.) Cuffman | ||||
| 1959 | Vera Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, was appointed an assistant professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases of U-M Medical School; she was pormoted to be associate professor in 1965 | ||||
| ca.1960 (TBC) | Frank Cuffman, son of Shelia Jean Bell, grandson of Agnes Boyack and great-grandson of Mary, was born | ||||
| 1966 | Martin Paul Quincey Wong, Peter's son, was made Knight Commander of the Order of St. Sylvester; an honor bestowed upon him by the Catholic Pope | ||||
| 1968 | John died in Ann Arbor, MI | ||||
| Florence Agnes Boyack, Mary's second child, died in Zurich | |||||
| 1972 | Vivien Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, became a Lector in the Deaprtment of East Asian Languages and Literatures in the Yale University | ||||
| 1976 | Julie Carroll, daughter of Michael Carroll and granddaughter of Terrence Hugh Quincey and great-granddaughter of Patrick was born in NZ. | ||||
| 1978 | Damon Carroll, son of Michael Carroll and grandson of Terrence Hugh Quincey and great-grandson of Lewis was born in NZ | ||||
| 1981 | Gordon K.C. Wang, Thomas' son, died in Beijing | ||||
| 1982 | Vivien Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, published her first of many Chinese language textbooks, titled Spoken Standard Chinese, Student Workbook, Yale University Press | ||||
| 1983 | Vivien Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, received an Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching by a Lector from the Yale University | ||||
| 1984 | Patrick died in San Francisco, CA. | ||||
| 1986 | Vera Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, received the Kaiser Permanente Awards for Excellence in Teaching (Clinic) | ||||
| 1987 | Vera Wong-Quincey, John's daughter, retired from the University of Michigan; she was conferred the title Associate Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases | ||||
| Wang Pinghua, son of Gordon K.C. Wang and grandson of Thomas, was appointed Associate Professor and Dean of Studies of the College of Food Produce Engineering Department, China Agricultural University in Beijing | |||||
| 1990 | Terrence Hugh Quincey, Patrick' son, died in Auckland, NZ | ||||
| 1991 | Cecilia Boyack, Mary's first child, died in San Jose, CA | ||||
| Wang Pinghua, son of Gordon K.C. Wang and grandson of Thomas, received the Best Teacher in Beijing Award | |||||
| 1993 | Martin Paul Quincey Wong, Peter's son, died in San Francisco, CA | ||||
| 1995 | Wang Pinghua, son of Gordon K.C. Wang and grandson of Thomas, was appointed Professor of the College of Food Produce, the China Agricultural University in Beijing; a position he held until his retirement in 1997 | ||||
| 2005 | Leonora Patricia Quincey died in Oklahoma City, OK | ||||
| 2010 | William Gordon Quincey, Patrick' son, died in England. He had no children | ||||
Genealogical Table of Descendants of William W. Quincey
According to the writer of the blog "Jesus is the Way", Bob Selheimer, who identifies himself as Quincey's great-grandson, Quincey had 4 wives who raised 6 sons and five daughters. The obituary of Quincey in the North-China Herald of August 25, 1923 confirmed that he was known to produce a rather large number of offspring, viz. 6 sons and 4 daughters. The following table is my attemp to map out four generations of Quincey's descendants.
| 1. William W. Quincey 王經年 (b.1848 or 1851, Quinsan, Jiangsu – d.8/24/1923, Shanghai); m.1. Catherine Tan (b.1853 - d.5/n.d./1923, Shanghai)(TBC); m.2, 3, 4 )Quincey was alleged to have three co-wives) |
| 11. Thomas William Quincey 王文光 (b.1873, Hong Kong – d.7/2/1949, Shanghai); m. Zeng Suxia, Mary 曾素霞 (b.1877, Canton – d.1931, Shanghai) |
| 111. Wang Guoxiu 王國秀 |
| 112. Gordon K.C. Wang 王國楨 (b.1903 – d.11/5/1981, Beijing; m.(1935) Huang Xiatong, Grace 黄小同 (b.12/27/1913, Shanghai – d.8/29/1996, Beijing) |
| 1121. Wang Shifang 王實方 |
| 1122. Wang Pinghua 王平華 (b.7/8/1937, Shanghai) |
| 12. Margaret Wong-Quincey (b.1876, Hong Kong)(TBC); m. George Ingram |
| 13. Mary Agnes Wong-Quincey (b.1881, Hong Kong - d.12/30/1951, Hong Kong); m.(4/27/1903, Tientsin) Lawrence Bernard Boyack (b.1877, Sunderland, England - d.n.d., Sunderland) |
| 131. Cecilia Lucy Boyack (b.7/29/1906, Shanghai – d.5/8/1991, San Jose, CA.) |
| 132. Florence Agnes Boyack (b.1909, Hankow – d.1988, Zurich); m1. Walter T. (or H.) C. Nyi (b.1910, Shanghai - d.n.d., Manila, The Philippines); m2 M. Haefeli |
| 133. Agnes Marjorie Boyack (b.1912, Hankow – d.1983, San Jose, CA.); m. Frank Richard Bell (b.1913) |
| 1331. Shelia Jean Bell (b.1936 - d.1996, Monterey, CA); m. Cuffman |
| 13311. Frank Cuffman |
| 1332. Elizabeth A. (Dinny) Bell (b.1938, Shanghai) |
| 134. Thomas Bernard Boyack (b.1915, Hankow - d.12/22/1941, Port Swettenham, Malaya) |
| 135. James Alexander Boyack (b.1918, Hankow - d.1946, Durham, England) |
| 136. Dorothy Boyack- (b.n.d., Hankow – d.n.d., San Jose, CA.); m. Howard W. Banter |
| 14. Peter Quincey Wong 王文昭 (b.1882, Hong Kong - d.1948, Hong Kong); m. Rose Yeung or Young |
| 141. Christopher Quincey Wong (b.n.d. - d.n.d., Tientsin) |
| 142. Phyllis Quincey Wong, later Sister Mary Terresita (b.1/3/1907, Hong Kong - d.2/13/1935, Monrovia, CA.) |
| 143. Martin Paul Quincey Wong 王崑士 (b.10/30/1908, Taiwan (TBC) - d.8/10/1993, San Francisco, CA); m. Helene Catherine Leong (b.1914, Macau, - d.n.d., San Francisco, CA) |
| 1431. Cyril Quincey Wong (b.1938, Hong Kong - d.n.d. Westchester, NY) |
| 1432. Martin Wilton Wong Quincey (b.1942, Hong Kong - d.n.d., San Francisco, CA) |
| 15. John Wong-Quincey 王文顯 (b.6/25/1887, Hong Kong - d.3/n.d./1968, Ann Arbor, MI); m. Sze Vong-tsu 史鳳珠 (b.n.d., Kunshan - d.n.d.) |
| 151. Vera Wong-Quincey 王碧仙 later 王希琰 (b.ca.1922, Peking); m. Liu Vi-cheng 劉維政 |
| 152. Vivien Wong-Quincey 王碧雲 later 王晞雲 (b.n.d., Peking); m. Daniel Lu Cho-ju 陸卓如 |
| 1521. child 1 (name unk.) |
| 1522. child 2 (name unk.) |
| 16. Lewis Patrick Wong-Quincey (b. 1893 (TBC), Hong Kong - d. 2/n.d./1984, San Francisco, CA); m1 (4/7/1920, Shanghai). Anna Magdalene Anderson (b.1901- d.1933, Shanghai); m2 Irene Pearl |
| 161. Leonora (Nora) Patricia Quincey (b.4/29/1921, Shanghai - d.12/26/2005, Oklahoma City, OK); m (9/1/1943, Shanghai) Robert George John Bulldeath (b.6/21/1915, Shanghai (TBC) – d.1/29/1998, Oklahoma City, OK); no issue |
| 162. William Gordon Quincey (b.12/16/1922, Shanghai - d.7/n.d./2010, England); no issue |
| 163. Terrence Hugh Quincey (b.5/29/1928, Shanghai - d.4/4/1990, Auckland, NZ); unmarried partner, Shella Wood Thomas (b.1928); m. (first name unk.) Gwendoline (TBC) |
| 1631. Brett Quincey |
| 16311. James Quincey |
| 16312. Christopher Quincey |
| 1632. Michael John Carroll (b.1952, Christchurch, NZ); m. Diane; [from Thomas, adopted by the Carroll family] |
| 16321. Julie Carroll (b.1976) |
| 16322. Damon Carroll (b.1978) |
| 17. Charles Quincey 王文宙 (b.n.d. - d.1950s, Macau) |
| 171. daughter (name unk.)(b.n.d., Shanghai) |
| 172. Joseph Wong (b.n.d., Shanghai) |
| 1721. John Wong Sai Yee (b.n.d., Shanghai) |
| 17211. Denny Wong Wang Chau (b.1973, Hong Kong) |
| 18. Jane Wong-Quincey (TBC) |
| 19. Madeline Wong-Quincey (TBC) |
| 20. Louis Wong-Quincey (TBC) |
The Quincey Puzzles. Here are the Quinceys I have not been able to fit in the table.
- A Mrs. P. Quincey existed in Hong Kong in 1904. Was she Peter's wife?
- A Philip Quincey Wong (b. November 28, 1927 - d. January 5, 2010, San Francisco) is said to have been born in a Hong Kong family. His year of birth places him in the rank of Quincey's grandchildren.
- A Miss. P.M. Quincey was listed working for the Henningsen Products Co. 海寧洋行 in Shanghai in 1930 and 1934. She could not have been Phyllis, Peter's daughter, as she became a nun in 1930.
- A Mr. J.C. Quincey was listed working for Edward Evans & Sons, Ltd. 英商伊文思圖書有限公司 in Shanghai in 1930. He would fit into the Quincey grandchildren slot.
- A Mr. R. Quincey shared the same address as Peter and his family in Shanghai, #19, Nanzing Road 南潯路, in 1930. Who was he?
- Mr. Bob Selheimer identifies himself as a great-grandson of Quincey, of which branch is presently unknown.
- Mr. Eddie Wang identifies himself as a great-grandson of Thomas William Quincey. Whether he is the son of Wang Shifang or Wang Pinghua is presently unknown.
PART II. JOHN WONG-QUINCEY
John Wong-Quincey (Wang Wenxian) 王文顯, the fifth son of William W. Quincey - inspector third class of HKPF, was born in Hong Kong on June 25, 1887. Beyond his father's wildest dream, John would, before he turned 40, become the founding dean of the Department of Western Literature 西洋文學系 at the Tsinghua University 清華大學. More significantly, he would be remembered as one of the greatest, and the most inspiring, dramatists in modern China, and the one and only to write stage plays in the English language.
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| Frits Holm (1911) by American photographer Sherril Schell. Credit: photoseed. |
From Undergraduate to Professorship, a Giant Leap
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| John Wong-Quincey, London University, 1910. Credit: 威海市檔案局 (Weihai Municipal Archive Bureau). |
[1] Here's my theory how John, a 25-ish student, got to represent ROC in Europe however minute that role might be. As in the case of the rest of the Wong-Quincey family, John was very religious, and while living in Shanghai he befriended Henry Theodore Hodgkin[a], a widely respected Quaker missionary who was in Shanghai between 1905 and 1909. I believe the two remained in contact, more particularly when John moved to London in 1910 to attend the London University. When Hodgkin was invited to speak at the Ninth Conference of the World's Student Christian Federation held in Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1911, he invited John to be his accompanied speaker. Their address took place on April 27, 1911 at Moussalla, Stamboul.
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| [2] Another source gives a different name to this magazine: The East in the West, and it had nothing to do with diplomatic mission. It was published in London by the Chinese Students' Christian Union in [of] Great Britain and Ireland, beginning 1911. John was listed as its editor from July 1911 to July 1912. | ||
| [3] The Chinese Review began publishing monthly from May 20, 1914. Chen Chin-tao {Chen Jintao} 陳錦濤[d], Counsellor of ROC's embassy in Great Britain, along with John were the editors. Excerpts of some of John's essays in The Chinese Review were cited in August 8, 1914 edition of the Hawera & Normanby Star [New Zealand, 1880-1924], the full text of which can be found in Appendix VI. I found it quite lengthy but a very good read. |
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Tsing Hua College
"Very American. Easy going. Drove a new Ford[1] and wrote English plays in the Shavian mode in his spare time... Very proud of his characterization and utterly indifferent to any consequences of publication.", was the description of John given by Ivor Armstrong Richards, visiting professor at Tsing Hua (1929-30). The americanized demeanor must be a newly acquired property since John had never set foot on American soil until 1920.
"In fact we rather like him because he could silence the American members at the faculty meeting by the mere tone of his voice.", said a Chinese colleague, Lin Yutang 林語堂, Nobel Prize nominee in Literature (1940, 1950), who taught English at Tsing Hua between 1916 and 1919. Lin was a graduate of St. John's University in Shanghai whereat John would became a professor in English during the war years.
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| Western studies teachers, Hsing Hua College 1916. John was in the second row, second from right. Sitting in the center was Y.T. Tsur, president of the college. Credit: Patriots or Traitors: A History of American Educated Chinese Students. |
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| John Wong-Quincey letter of December 10, 1918. Unfortunately this is a file copy and as such it wasn't signed. Credit: University of Chicago Library. |
Some of the resources I've consulted have named John one of the five mentors in the graduate school at Tsing Hua 清華學校研究院. The graduate school in matter was established in 1925 and it had a single academic focus: Chinese studies; in fact it was often referred to as the Tsinghua Academy of Chinese Learning 清華國學研究院. There were four mentors in the graduate school, namely Liang Chi-chao 梁啟超, Wang Guowei 王國維, Chen Yinke 陳寅恪, and Zhao Yuanren 趙元任. John, being a Shakespearean academic, was never a part of the graduate school during its relatively short existence of merely four years.
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| John posted in this 1918 photo in his Scoutmaster uniform. Credit: An Commemoration of Tsing Hua, 20th Anniversary. |
John sat on the Board of Managers of the Shantung Christian University 山東基督教共和大學 (later Cheeloo University 齊魯大學) in 1925. He was appointed visiting lecturer of the faculty of English Literature at the Peking University in 1929 and 1930, due to shortage of teaching personnel there.
| [1] Sze Vong-tsu, John's wife who didn't drive, was said to have employed a non-Chinese chauffeur. | ||
| [2] The Tsing Hua School 清華學校, known as the Tsing Hua College 清華學堂 before 1912, was the brainchild of Qing Minister to the United States, Liang Cheng 梁誠 (1903-1907), who styled himself as Sir Chentung Liang Cheng[a], and Edmund Janes James 詹姆士, the president of the University of Illinois (1904-1920). The history of Tsing Hua University is extremely well known that I need not go over this here. | ||
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| Yu Zhenyong. Credit: China Agricultural University. | Qian Chongshu. Credit: 海寧檔案史志. | Chen Yinge. Credit: 拙風文化網. | Zhu Binyuan. Credit: Who's Who in China, 1925. | Lu Maode. Credit: Jinan Culture and History. |
 |  |  |  |  |
| Zheng Zhifan. Credit: 吳江社科. | Zhu Junyi. Credit: 民國名人圖鑑. | Ma Yuehan. Credit: the blog of caihongnj. | Ye Qisun. Credit: 新華網. | Yu Rixuan. Credit: Fudan University. |
| [4] Founding Deans of Departments, College Department of the Tsing Hua School 清華學校大學部, elected at the third meeting of the professors of the College held on April 29, 1926: Agronomy* 農業系 – Yu Zhenyong 虞振鏞. Biology - Qian Chongshu 錢崇樹. Chemistry – Yang Guangbi 楊光弼. Chinese Language and Literature – Wu Zai 吳在. Civil Engineering – Zhou Yongde 周永德. East Asian Languages* 東方語言學系 – Chen Yinge 陳寅格. Economics – Zhu Binyuan 朱彬元. History – Lu Maode 陸懋德. Mathematics – Zheng Zhifan 鄭之蕃. Music – vacant. Pedagogical Psychology – Zhu Junyi 朱君毅. Philosophy – vacant. Physical and Military Education* 體育軍事學 – Ma Yuehan 馬約翰. Physics – Ye Qisun 葉企孫. Political Science – Yu Rixuan 余日宣. Sociology – Chen Da 陳達. Western Literature – John Wong-Quincey 王文顯. [* name needs further verification] |
| [a] In 1897, while serving in London as secretary to the Special Chinese Embassy to Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, Liang Cheng was made an Honorary Knight Commander of Michael and George. At that time, he placed his romanized "courtesy name", Chentung 震東, before his family name to more readily conform to British custom. Laing was disposted as Qing minister to Germany in January 1912 following the establishment of ROC. He came to Hong Kong and stayed here until he died in 1917. |
Yale
| Yale Daily News #180 May 25, 1927 Drama School to Produce Play by Chinese Student "Peking Politic," a Modern Play Depicting Political Strife in China, to Appear at University Theater May 31. As the final production of the season the Drama Department of the School of Fine Arts will present Peking Politics, a three-act play by J. Wong Quincey of Peking, China, it was announced to-day by Professor George Pierce Baker, chairman of the Department. The performance will be given at the University Theater on May 31. "Peking Politics," Professor Baker said, "is an unusual example in the development of the drama at Yale, in that it is perhaps the first serious attempt by a Chinese to represent China to America through the medium of the stage. The play will attempt to present a vivid drama of the manners and customs of the Chinese people which may do much to overcome misconceptions formed in the minds of the Western people by the sensational and not altogether fair writings of foreigners. "The play is distinctly modern: the opening action takes place in 1915. Much of the unrest and political strife which tended to disrupt parts of China will be depicted in a stirring revelation of a political machine hard at work in an endeavor to permanently abolish the Republican form of government. The scenes are laid in Peking, one of the oldest and yet most modern cities in the world, the seat of the present Chinese government and an ideal background for this attempt at modern Chinese drama." |
Germany
John went to Berlin for advanced studies either before or after he attended Yale. I was unable to find any further information about his German sojourn so far. [John had a MJI degree, which, if I am not mistaken, stands for Magister Juris Internationalis, a law degree obtainable from a university in Germany. (11/17/2017)]
The War Years
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| The campus of the National Changsha Provisional University. This particular building was located in Jiucaiyuan 韭菜園 and was previously the Hunam Bible Institute, which was established by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles in 1917. |
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| Japanese army officers posted in front of the John Hay Memorial Library which was to converted into a hospital. Credit: 觀察者. |
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| The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Gymnasium became a kitchen. Credit: 觀察者. |
| This book has been written under difficulties. In the course of its preparation my family and I have been driven from pillar to post as refugees from the war. We have lost almost everything except memories of the happy past and hopes for a happier future. The writing of this volume has been undertaken as a deliberate counter-attraction to the distraction of war... Part of the manuscript was written in a bathroom with pile of suitcases serving as a table. |
My question remains, what kept John from joining his colleagues in Kunming?
John before leaving Peking had arranged to have a number of his books kept at the Zhengjue Temple 正覺寺 (more common known as the Lama Temple 喇嘛廟) inside the Old Summer Palace 圓明園, which had been used as living quarters to house certain Tsing Hua staff. In 1939, John had asked a friend of his, Tao Zuchun 陶祖椿, to retrieve the books and donated all of them to the Yenching University 燕京大學. Tao was John's badminton buddy; he played for the Peking YMCA (Chinese) Team. Tao's son, Tao Zongzhen 陶宗震, was a famous architect and urban planner involved in the schematics of the Tiananmen Square. I have no idea why John gave away his own collection of books, did he think the Japanese would won and became China's new ruler. I cannot fathom another reason for his untimely donation.
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| 1930s photo of the entrance of the St. John's University. Credit: Divinity Library, Yale University. |
John's family was with him in Shanghai in the war years except his first daughter, Vera, who went to the United States in the 1940s before Shanghai was completely occupied by the Japanese. Vivien, his second daughter, attended St. John's and after receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1945, went also to the United States for postgraduate studies. John continued to teach at St. John's after the war and in 1947 he was appointed Dean of the English Department.
From Shakespearean to Confucianism: Life in the USA
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| 1956 photo of John Wong-Quincey. Credit: The Denisonian (Granville, OH), April 20, 1956. |
John moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1952 to take up his appointment as a visiting professor of English at the Spelman College. It was there that he was first issued a United States Social Security Card (#259-52-3239). From 1956 John, under the auspicious of the Association of American Colleges, became an ambassador to promote interest in Asian culture, a position that took him to different parts of the United States giving speeches at universities and colleges. John Wong Quincey died in Ann Arbor, home of U-M, in March 1968.
| The Geneva NY Daily Times, October 23, 1957 Lecture-Concert Series: Chinese Scholar Speaks at College on Thursday John Wong-Quincey, noted Chinese scholar sponsored by the Association of American Colleges to help encourage interest in Asian culture, will be guest speakers Thursday evening in a free program at the New Student Union in the Hobart College Campus. The Talk, schedule to begin at 8:15p.m., is the second in a series of concerts and lectures for the current academic year presented by the Committee on the Calendar of Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Mr. Wong-Quincey's subject will be "Confucianism and Christianity." In his address, he will try to explain some basic concepts which have helped, historically, to condition the Chinese mind... |
"China As It Isn't"
I was looking to find [for the purpose of this story, rather than for intellectual betterment on my part] a compendious description of the thinking and philosophy behind John Wong-Quincey's literature creation, but came away with nothing worth citing for my purpose. That's until I found the contents of an interview given by John on September 22, 1928 in Peking. The interviewer was Harold John Temperley 田伯烈[1], who was Manchester Guardian's China correspondent. The interview was later carried in the November 13, 1928 issue of the Daily News, Perth, West Australia, with these headings “China as It Isn't, Imaginative Writers, Oriental to the Rescue”. The following is a recountal of John's own words.
| In applying Western dramatic technique to the writing of plays dealing with Chinese life, I have set before myself a twofold aim. First, I desire, on a modest scale, to pave the way for the creation of a modern Chinese drama. Secondly, by writing in English, I wish to present to the West a real picture of the Chinese as they are, and not as they are supposed to be. I am not a propagandist; no true artist can be that. I believe that, like other peoples, the Chinese have vices as well as virtues; and the virtues predominate, otherwise the Chinese could not have survived as a nation. I am not afraid of advertising the weaknesses of the Chinese character or the abuses of Chinese life. What I desire is only to present a true picture of the Chinese with such slight modifications as will make them intelligible to Western audiences. I think that the battle for a fair representation of the Chinese will be long and arduous. Imaginative writers of fiction in the West have built up a picture of the Chinese that is either sensational, depraved and grotesque, or fantastically romantic and unreal. To correct this false and deep and deep-rooted impression will call for the labor of a genius. But someone must make a beginning, however small and weak. The Chinese drama is bound to change, but personally I would like to see the old-type drama remain untouched and unspoilt, and, side by side, to encourage the development of a new drama. The laws of evolution may well defy the hopes of man but, since change and modernization seem inevitable, I believe we should guide the translation into artistic channels rather than leave it to the tender mercies of the cinema, the vaudeville, and the cheap melodrama of the West. |
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Publications
| Year | Title | Publication Info (Remarks) | ||
| 1914 | The Eclipse of Young China | London: The Chinese Review (essay) | ||
| 1915 | The Great World War from the Chinese Standpoint | n.p. (book, 119 pages) | ||
| 1917 | Modern Education in China | Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, Vol. 2, Issue 7, May 1917, pp.155-71. (essay) | ||
| 1920s | Youth and the Ethical Appeal | Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies. (essay) | ||
| 1921 | Educational Guide to the United States: for Use of Chinese and Other Oriental Students 留美指南 | Commercial Press, Limited (book, 634 pages) | ||
| 1927 | Peking Politics | (three-act play written while studying at Yale; premiere at University Theater of Yale on May 31, 1927) | ||
| 1929 | She Stoops to Compromise | Peking: Tsing Hua University Press (comedy in 3 acts) | ||
| 1935 | Bandit Cut Bandit, scenario for a moving picture in nine scenes (a British economic mission to China captured by Chinese bandits: a kaleidoscope of Chinese militarist misrule, endangering British interests.) | Peking, the Author | ||
| 1939 | Chinese Hunter
[Read]
| The John Day Compamy (book, 383 pages) | ||
| Love and Marriage | Tientsin Press (one-act play) |
The Family
Sze Vong-tsu, Mrs. Wong-Quincey
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| Dora Maya Das and Sze Vong-tsu, 1922 Peking, at the World Christian Student Federation Conference hosted by Tsing Hua. Maya Das was a noted student movement activist in India, an educator, and the Associate National Secretary of YWCA in India. Credit: World Student Christian Federation Connection. |
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| ca.1912-1920 photo of Sze Vong-tsu playing the piano[1]. Credit: By kind permission of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. |
Clearly, Vong-tsu had impressed the American public during her sojourn in the United States as a gifted pianist and a young woman of l'esprit occidental. I found a report published in the Ottawa Daily Republic about Vong-tsu's appearance in a New York concert, which if written today, may invite the feeling that there is a hint of racism. The brief report, however, was written in the turn of the twentieth century and about a person who came from a land where men wore queue and women had their feet bound, she was a novelty. The second news clipping came from the Kanas City Times, which gave a report on the farewell party given in honor of Vong-tsu. She was returning to Shanghai after completing her studies in New York.
| The Ottawa Daily Republic (Kansas), February 26, 1909, p.6 Miss Vong Tsu Sze one of the few members of her race who has succeeded in mastering the piano. She appeared this week in a public concert in New York City, and has proven that her race can be musicians if they will. Her concert was one of the notable events of the city. |
| Kanas City Times, June 25, 1910, p.9 Graduating with high honors from the New York School of Music, over which Walter Damrosch presides. Miss Vong Tsu-Sze left New York the other night for San Francisco, from whence she will sail for her home in Shanghai, China. For many years prior to her arrival in New York Miss Sze was a close student of the piano, and now that the finishing touches have been put upon her musical education here she returns to her native land to devote her life to introducing the music of the Occident to the Orient. For the last four years Miss Sze has made her home at the Three Arts Club, West End Avenue and Eighty-sixth Street. At the reception given last night in her honor men and women of all professions attended. As her father, Tsz Kyia Sze, is a Methodist minister attached to the McTyler Mission School, Shanghai, many clergymen were among the guests. Miss Sze said; "I may take charge of a post graduate musical course in one of the mission schools, or else open a conservatory of music on my own account." |
Several sources in China say she received a doctorate in music, but graduate studies was not available at the I.M.A. [Anyhow, I have written to the Juilliard School requesting clarifications, I hope to receive a reply before long. (6/4/2013)] She worked as an instructor in music at the Eliza Yates Memorial School for Girls 晏摩氏女中學校 in 1911 and went back to the McTyeire School in 1912 also to teach music. She became the head of the Music Department in February 1913. Vong-tsu later joined the Tsing Hua College 清華學校 (in or after 1916, since music was only introduced to the curriculum in 1916) as a piano teacher[4].
Vong-tsu sat on the Borad of Managers of Yenching University in 1931.
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| [2] Sze Vong-pau {Shi Fengbao} 史鳳寶 matriculated at the McTyeire School in Shanghai in 1891. She was one of the three graduates when the school held its first ever congregation in 1900. She stayed behind at McTyeire as a teacher after her graduation. She went to the Soochow Medical School 蘇州醫學院 to read medicine in 1902 but changed to another school after one year, the Laura Hay Good Memorial School 蘇州景海女墪. She became the assistant Principal of the Anti-Footbinding School, 天足女學 in Shanghai in 1904. Desiring further studies in education, she went to the United States in October 1905 where she enrolled in a private school in New York (most probably the St. Lawrence Academy) in 1906 to read Normal Training. She changed school yet again in 1908 to the Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies before returning to China in 1910. Back in Shanghai, she taught at the Susan B. Wilson School in Sungkiang 松江慕衛女墪. In 1912, she returned to her alma mater, McTyeire, as a teacher and became the assistant Principal of the Primary Department 上海中西女塾附設初等學堂副堂長 in 1914, and to be the principal the following year. She was also the editor of Happy Childhood 福幼報, a periodical created for children in the Chinese language. She went to school again in the United States in 1925, unfortunately, I don't have the details of that. That is also the last bit of her trail. | ||
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[Sel.bibliog. 王平華, 黃炎培先生的兒子們和主要親戚與清華 (Wang, Pinghua (son of Gordon Wong), The children and close relatives of Mr. Huang Yanpei and Qinghua (University))[on line]] |
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| Vera (top row, first from right), known as Hsi Yen Wang, posted with other U-M Medical students who were members of Alpha Epsilon Iota, 1946 photo. AEI is a national society of medical women; the U-M chapter was founded on February 23, 1890. Credit: U-M. |
Vera Wong-Quincey {Wang Bixian} 王碧仙 (b.ca.1922, Peking- ) is the older of the two daughters of John and Vong-tsu. Vera attended the primary school affiliated to Tsing Hua University 清華大學附屬成志小學. And there, she befriended a small circle of schoolmates, one of them is the son of the head of the Mathematical Department in the university, who naturally was a colleague of her father; the boy's name was Franklin Chen-ning Yang {Yang Zhenning} 楊振寧. For reason unknown to me, Vera had her Chinese name changed from Bixian to Hsi-yen {Xiyan} 希琰, probably when she reached adulthood. She went to the United States for her college education and obtained an A.B. degree from the Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa in 1944. In that same year she was awarded the Barbour Scholarship for Oriental Women (known today as the Rackham Barbour Scholarship for Asian Women) that enabled her to enroll in the University of Michigan Medical School. She received her MD degree in 1948. After undertaking an internship at the Harper Hospital in Detroit, she returned to the University Hospital of U-M for her pediatrics residency. Clearly it wasn't her design that the following three events should take place while she was at U-M, but I am quite sure she had no regrets that they happened. First, it was in the university that she met her love one and they got married and continued to study and work together under the same roof [may be not the same roof, but definitely the same Ann Arbor sky]. Secondly, she set out to be a clinician, but the educator's gene in her took over, and she would instead become far better known as a remarkable clinical teacher. Thirdly, she would be glued to the university from the day of her matriculation right up to her retirement 38 years later, and had never left in between. In 1959, Vera, better known in her married name, Liu Hsi-yen, was appointed Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and was promoted to associate professor in 1965. Her devotion in teaching and the inspiring methodology she used earned her more than acclamation, Vera was the recipient of no less than five awards associated with education, including the prestigious Kaiser Permanente Awards for Excellence in Teaching (1986, clinic award). She co-authored a book, titled Food Allergy in 1980 and has contributed a large volume of articles to various general and specialty medical journals. Upon Vera's retirement in 1987, she was conferred by U-M the title of Associate Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases. Vera went to China and was engaged as a visiting professor at the Hunan Medical University 湖南醫科大學 in 2000.
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| Liu Vi-cheng. Credit: U-M. |
| In July 1986, Vi-cheng and Vera, together with a famous rocket scientist, Cheng Sin-I 程心一, traveled to China. They were at Xian on July 5 and were received by the chairman of Shaanxi Province's PCC, Tan Weixu 談維煦, at a welcome dinner. Cheng Sin-I {Cheng Xinyi}(b.1921-d.2011) was an emeritus professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, who was known as a pioneer in rocketry and aerodynamics. It was interesting that both Vi-cheng and Cheng were allowed to visit China together. So, what happened in the international space program scene in 1986? In the U.S.: Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard on January 28, 1986. It took another six years for NASA to fly the next orbitor, Endeavour. In China: In March 1986, an ambitious plan, named Astronautics plan 863-2 was proposed. The program called for a crewed spacecraft (Project 863-204) which would ferry astronaut crews to a space station (Project 863-205). The plan never achieved its goal. Two years later on July 5, the The Ministry of Aerospace Industry was founded. |
Vivien Wong-Quincey, Daughter
The Peking born Vivien Wong-Quincey {Wang Biyun} 王碧雲, is Vera's kid sister. As in the case of Vera, Vivien also had her Chinese name changed and became known as Hsi-yun [the Chinese characters probably are 晞雲]. She attended the St. John's University in Shanghai and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1945. At the end of the Pacific War, she matriculated at the Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and graduated with a Certificate of Graduate Studies in English in 1948. She afterward attended the University of Michigan whereat she received a Master of Arts degree in 1951. She began teaching Chinese language at Yale University from 1972 as lector in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and became senior lector in Chinese in 1977. In 1983 she was presented an Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching by a lector at Yale and on the first day of 1997 she attained emeritus status. Vivien was married to a Yale professor, a Chinese by the name of Lu, who died in ca.1993. From the 1980s she began writing books on language studies using the name of Vivien Wong Quincey Lu, and later Vivien Hsi-yun Lu [Quite a number of online bookstores have mistaken her to be two persons: Vivien Wong and Quincey Lu.] Her published works have included Spoken Standard Chinese, Student Workbook, Yale University Press, 1982; Written Standard Chinese; Student Workbook, Far Eastern Publications, Yale University Press, 1983; Pattern Sentences of Elementary Chinese, Yale University Press, 1994, etc.
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| 1948 photograph of Prof. C.W. Lu (Vivien's father-in-law), the Rev. Noel B. Slater (Secretary, China Christian Universities Association) and Dwight W. Edwards (Secretary, YMCA, Peking) taken on the Yenching campus. Credit:Yenching News, November 1948. |
| [1] I found an intriguing open letter published in the February 23, 1956 edition of the People's Daily 人民日報 sent [allegedly] by Lu's parents in which they demanded the United States Government to refrain from detaining their son and allow him to return to China. Here goes the letter and my rough translation. Two days after I've finished the translation, I found a response from Lu, equally intriguing if not more, published in a United States newspaper (see following box). 陸卓如的父母陸志韋和劉文端來信 我們的兒子陸卓如，1946年底去美國，在密執安大學學核子物理學。解放前后都經常有信來，可是到了1952年四、五月，忽然音訊斷絕了。我們在北京的兒 女給他去過20多封信，都沒有回信。去年春天，全家又寫了一封長信，寄密執安大學校友課轉交。但信給退回來了，上批“無人招領”。去年夏天，我們知道杜連 耀先生快回國了，托他跟卓如聯系。杜連耀先生帶回來卓如的地址，明明是在密執安大學。此后我們又一連去了三封信，告訴他中美大使級會談關於雙方平民回國問 題已經達成協議，但至今仍然信息杳然。 從1950年至1952年，卓如來信時常提到要回國。1952年4月他最后的一封信說：“……其中最令人生氣的是回國計划全不能行。我本預備去年9月作完 試驗，年底回家過年，不料8月間美國政府突然改變計划，以前是一直盡可能迫令中國人回國，后來看見新中國政府歡迎留學生回國參加建設，就突然下令禁止理工 科學生回國。8月間有一批回國學生已經得到出境許可，到了夏威夷又被押解回美。目前一切學理工的（核子物理更不必說了），如果私自離美被發現后，要坐牢二 年，罰款5，000美元。一切比較活動的中國留學生都要被移民局槃問……”。在此以前，卓如本人就受過美國移民局的迫害，只因為他是美國中西部中國留學生 科學工作者協會的一個負責人。 美帝國主義者對中國留學生的迫害是毫無情理可言的。我年已65歲，在科學院工作，我們思念卓如回國心切。為此，我們要向美國政府提出嚴重抗議，并請求政府幫助卓如早日擺脫美國政府的留難，回國參加建設。 北京 陸志韋 劉文端 A letter from Lu Zhiwei and Liu Wenrui, the parents of Lu Zhuoru. Our son Lu Zhuoru went to the United States at the end of 1946 to read nuclear physics at the University of Michigan. He regularly wrote home whether before or after the liberation [the establishment of PRC]. All communication from him stopped in around April, May 1952. Our children in Beijing wrote him more than 20 letters, there were no answers. In spring last year, a long letter was composed by the whole family and sent in care of the alumni office of the University of Michigan. The letter was returned marked "unclaimed". In summer last year, we became aware that Mr. Du Lianyao would soon return to China and asked of him to make contact with Zhuoru. Mr. Du returned with Zhuoru's address, which clearly stated the address of the University of Michigan. We then sent him three letters telling him the matter regarding civilian repatriation between China and the United States has been resolved at Ambassadorial-level meetings between the two countries, but we still haven't heard from him. Zhuoru, in his letters between 1950 and 1952, often mentioned his wish to return to China. In his last letter dated April 1952, he said, "... one of the most annoying matters was that the plan to return to China cannot be realized. My plan was to complete the test [nature unknown] in September last year and then come home towards the end of the year. Unexpectedly, the United States Government reversed its policy in August, instead of sending as many Chinese back to China as possibly which has been in practice in the past, it now prohibits science and technology students from going back to China, when it became aware that the Chinese Government welcomes the return of Chinese students studied abroad so they may serve in the betterment of the country. In August, a group of students, who had received permission to leave the United States, were stopped upon arriving in Hawaii and sent back, under escort, to the continental U.S. At present, any technology student (not to mention nuclear physics) caught sneaking out of the U.S. will face two years imprisonment and a US$5,000 fine. More active students become, without fail, targets of interrogations by Immigration." Previously, Zhuoru himself was persecuted by the United States Immigration for the mere reason that he was an officer of a society of Chinese scientific workers in Midwestern Unites States. Persecution against Chinese students in the Unites States by American imperialists is totally unreasonable. I am 65 years old and engaged in the Chinese Academy of Science. We craved for the return of Zhuoru. We therefore protest seriously against the United States Government, and appeal to our own to assist Zhuoru so he could return expediently and serve in the betterment of our country. |
| Toledo Blade (Toledo, Ohio), February 23, 1956 A-Scientist Is Silent on Red's Charge Young Chinese Cites 'Personal Reasons' in 'Detention Dispute' AMES, Ia., Feb. 23 (AP) A young Chinese nuclear physicist said today there were "personal reasons" why he did not want to comment on a charge by Red China that he was being detained and "persecuted" in the United States. Daniel Cho Ju Lu, a research associate at the Iowa State College cyclotron, said that it "might only make matters worse on both sides" if he discussed the report. The complaint, broadcast by Peiping radio, quoted the Peiping Peoples Daily as saying Mr. Lu's father, Lu Chih Wi, had charged the U.S. Immigration Service has harassed his son "simply because he was a leading member of a Chinese scientific workers association in America." Reached at Institute The father was identified in the broadcast as the former president of Red China's Yenching University, who now is working in the Chinese Academy of Science. Mr. Lu was reached at the Ames Institute for Atomic Research, where he has been employed since receiving his Ph.D. Degree from the University of Michigan last February. The young father of two American-born children agreed "in principle" that the U.S. Immigration Service regulations now permit Chinese students to leave the United States if they wish. 'Personal Reason' He said arrangements for entering Red China can be made though the Indian Government, but added "there are personal reasons why I do not take advantage of the offer." Concerning the Peiping radio's charge that "more than 20" of the father's letters to his son had gone unanswered since 1952, Mr. Lu said that in time he actually had received only "about two" letters from his father. He added that he had answered these letters but did not write to his father directly. |
PART III. THE OTHER QUINCEY BOYS, AND GIRL
Thomas Quincey
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| Undated photo of Thomas Quincey. Credit: Leaders of Commerce Industry and Thought in China (1924). |
The Wa Lane Scandal that deposed Quincey wasn’t an exclusive HKPF happening. Several clerical staff in the Registrar General's Office were found connected with the scandal and were sacked[1], among them one Thomas Wong-Quincey. I am under the impression that the Quinceys (father and son) were not the liaison of a conspiracy involving the HKPF and the Registrar General's Office; they were just taking bribes from where they sat. Unlike his father, Thomas received no pension from the Hong Kong Government. He probably left for Shanghai in 1898 together with his father and, incredibly, within a few years emerged in Qing China as a prominent banker. He was listed as the sub-manager of the Taching Government Bank, Hankow 大淸銀行漢口分行 in 1906 and as the branch manager of the same bank two years later. In 1910 he became the branch manager of the Chungking, Szechuen branch of the same bank 大淸銀行四川重慶分行. He went to the Straits Settlements in 1913 to took up the position of manager of the Singapore branch of the Bank of Communications 交通銀行星加坡分行. In 1914, he was appointed a director of the newly established Heung On Insurance Co., Ltd. in Hong Kong, it is unclear though if he was physically stationed in Hong Kong at that time. He was listed in 1921 as the Shanghai branch manager of the Bank of Canton 廣東銀行上海分行. He went to Singapore again in the 1930s and headed the Bank of China there until 1936. Thomas moved back to Hong Kong in 1937 and became the Secretary of the National & Commercial & Savings Bank 香港國民商業儲蓄銀行, a position he held until after the Pacific War (the bank's operation was suspended between December 1941 and September 1945). He was here in 1948 when he took in his 5th brother John and his wife Vong-tsu, who left Shanghai; Thomas' last known address in Hong Kong was at #2 Brezzy Terrace. A year later, Thomas died in Shanghai. It is unknown whether he was visiting the city or was again making Shanghai his home base. Thomas' last known address in Shanghai was #22, Edinburgh Road 憶定盤路 (present day Jiangsu Road 江蘇路). Apparently, he had been keeping a residence in this address since 1934.
Thomas married Zeng Suxia, Mary 曾素霞 (Chinese characters TBC)(b.1877, Canton - d.1931, Shanghai), who bore him two children, Wang Guoxiu 王國秀 and her kid brother, Gordon K.C. Wang 王國楨.
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| Undated photo of Gordon K.C. Wang. Credit: 黃炎培先生的兒子們和主要親戚與清華. |
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| Undated photo of Grace Huang's family. Grace was seated (first left with unidentified toddler sitting on her lap) while Gordon stood (second from right). Seated in the middle were Grace's parents, Wang Jiusi 王纠思 and Huang Yanpei 黄炎培. Credit: 清華校友文稿资料选编 A Collection of Selected Tsing Hua Alumni Manuscript Materials, 21st edition.. |
Gordon and Grace had two sons, Wang Shifang 王實方 and Wang Pinghua 王平華. No information about Wang Shifang came to the surface except that he was declared a rightist and was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.
Wang Pinghua 王平華 (b. July 8, 1937, Shanghai – present) completed secondary school in July 1956 and afterward entered the Beijing Normal University 北京師範大學 to read chemistry. He graduated in August 1960 and was given a teaching and research position in the Beijing Agricultural Mechanization College 北京農業機械化學院 (present day China Agricultural University 中國農業大學) on the subject of agricultural technology. In August 1987, he was appointed associate professor and assistant dean of studies of the Food Produce Engineering Department in the Beijing Agricultural Engineering University 北京農業工程大學. From January 1995 until he retired in July 1997, Wang was the professor of the College of Food Produce of the China Agricultural University. Wang received the Best Teacher in Beijing Award in September 1991. He is a member of the CCP.
| [1] Those who were dismissed: Charles Osmund 柯士文, First Clerk; Thomas W. Quincey, Interpreter; Ip Pak-shau, Writer. Those who were asked to resign: Lo Man-kam[a], Registration Clerk; Yung Kan, Writer; Li Long-po, Writer; Kwong Chi, Writer; Kwong Hop, Messenger and; Yung Leung, Messenger. |
| [a] Not to be mistaken with Lo Man-kam 羅文錦 (b.1893-d.1959), solicitor, member of the Legislative and Executive Councils, and son-in-law of Robert Hotung, etc. |
[Sel.bibliog. 王平華, 黃炎培先生的兒子們和主要親戚與清華 (Wang, Pinghua (son of Gordon Wong), The children and close relatives of Mr. Huang Yanpei and Qinghua (University))[on line]. Wilson S. Wei, Tonyim Lee, G. C. Huang, ed., The Handbook of Chinese Student in USA 1931, chinese Students Handbook, New York. 中華職業教育社社訊 China Vocational Education Association News, March 20, 2017, 411/24 edition.]
Mary Agnes Wong-Quincey |
| Undated photo of the Boyack Piano Company, taken from inside the shop. The sign reads, "L.B. Boyack, Piano, Organ and Musical Instrument Dealer, Tuners and Repairer". Credit: Maggie Liu, Bo Yiye: The "Chronicle" of Three Generations of Inheritance. |
Sometime before 1908, Lawrence and Mary moved to Hankow and opened a piano tuning and repair business at #9 Peking Road, under the name of Boyack Piano Co. 波衣也琴行[1]. Mary worked in the shop as a bookkeeper. In 1908, while still running the piano company, Lawrence landed himself in a job working for the British Consulate-General in Hankow as a constable and a shipping clerk. In 1922, his consulate post was reassigned to Shanghai, a promotion to the position of Head Shipping Clerk, Shipping Office[2]. So He and Mary moved to Shanghai, leaving the running of the piano shop to a trusted employee Lin Zhengwen 林正文. Four years later he sold the business to Lin, who carried on the business under the same name. [cit] In 1933, Lawrence was honored with an OBE, and being the only awardee from Shanghai in the year's New Year Honor[3]. According to the January 22, 1933 issue of the Hong Kong Telegraph, Lawrence's health necessitated him taking 12 months home leave for medical treatment and that it was probable that he would not be permitted to return to China. [cit] Lawrence did not take the sick leave back to England as the news journalist had supposed; his name remained in the North China Hong List (1934) as British Consulate's Head Shipping Clerk. Furthermore, Lawrence hit the New Year Honor List the second time in 1935; this time he was awared the British Empire Medal (Civil Division, for Meritorious Service), also in his capacity as the Head Shipping Clerk. [cit] I chanced upon a document title that reads, “Boyack, L B: reckoning of service in China as unhealthy, for pension purposes “, dated 1936, held by The National Archives, Kew, and suspect he had returned to England sometime in 1936 and that he had already retired from government service. He died during the war. Mary, however, might have stayed in Shanghai until after the Pacific War. She was listed under the address at #91 Rte Remi, Apt 9 in 1941. Mary later moved to Hong Kong and died at the St. Paul's Hospital on December 30, 1951. [cit]
Mary and Lawrence had six children; all born in Hankow except their first daughter:
Cecilia Lucy Boyack (b. July 29, 1906, Shanghai – d. May 8, 1991, San Jose, CA) was listed as an employee of Eastman Kodak Co. in Shanghai in 1941; she was a sales clerk. [cit] During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, she was interned in the Chapei Camp from March 1943 until August 1945. She was listed as a British national. Cecilia went to the United States to be with her sister Agnes and her husband Francis Bell, arriving at San Francisco on March 11, 1949. After her application for US residency on July 1951 was denied, she appealed to Congressman John Zuinglius (TBC) Anderson and subsequently to Congressman Charles Gubser. Her residency application was granted on August 21, 1954. She was listed in the appeal documents as a Chinese national with British parents. Cecilia never married. [cit]
Florence Agnes Boyack (b.1909, Hankow – d. 1988, Zurich) began working for China Electric Company as a stenographer in 1931; [cit] the same position her sister Agnes would take up from 1934. She moved to Eastman Kodak Co. in Shanghai no later than 1934 and kept her job there until 1941. [cit] Sometime between 1934 and 1941, she married Walter T. (or H.) C. Nyi 倪 (b.1910, Shanghai – d.n.d., Manila, Philippines), a Chinese national, who worked for the investment bankers, Baeten & Co. 協盛洋行 in Shanghai; he was previously with the Finance Banking Corporation, Ltd. 達商銀行, in the same city. [cit] Florence's listed address in 1934 was #194A, North Szechuen Road; she was not living with her parents then. Florence later (no earlier than 1941) remarried a man named Hefilley[4]; they resided in Switzerland. [cit] Frank Cuffman mentioned that Florence was not interned in Shanghai during the Japanese occupatiom as she was then employed by the Swiss Consulate. I found no record of her under the Swiss Consulate listing; she probably was by 1943 already married to Hefilley, very likely a Swiss national.
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| ca.1940 photo of Sheila Jean Bell. Photo courtesy: Frank Cuffman. |
Thomas Bernard Boyack (b. 1915, Hankow – d. December 22, 1941) was a marine engineer and served on the oil tanker, MV Harpa, which was in service with the British Merchant Navy during WWII; he was the 5th Engineer Officer. Harpa was bombed on December 22, 1941 at the beginning of the Malayan Campaign at Port Swettenham; Thomas was one of the four engineering officers killed on that day. [cit] He was buried in the Kuala Lumpur Civil Cemetery. [cit]
James Alexander Boyack (b.1918, Hankow – d. January 29, 1946, Durham), was a lance-corporal of the Royal Engineers when he was engaged in the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941. Following the fall of Hong Kong, James became a prisoner of war and was shipped out to Japan in September the following year along with more than 1,800 British and Commonwealth military personnel on board the Japanese cargo liner, SS Lisbon Maru. [cit] On October 1, the ship was torpedoed by the submarine USS Grouper and began to sink on the following day. Some PoWs were unable to escape as the deck hatches were battened down above them; those who did manage to get to the water surface were fired at by nearby Japanese vessels. As a result, more than 800 PoWs died [cit]; James survived and ended up in a PoW camp in Osaka. [Most of the Lisbon Maru survivors were sent to these three camps, namely, Kobe House, Chikko and Amagasaki. Unfortunately, I am unable to locate James's name from available camp rosters. [cit]] He was repatriated to Scotland after the war, but died months later at the Cherry Knowle Emergency Hospital in Durham. Aplastic Anaemia was written on his death certificate as the COD. [cit]
Dorothy Boyack (b.n.d., Hankow – d.n.d., San Jose) was married to an American national, Howard W. Banter. They left Shanghai for the United States way before the onset of the Pacific War.
[I was uncertain if Mary Agnes was indeed the daughter of Quincey until her great grandson (grandson of Agnes Boyack-Bell) contacted me on July 22, 2015 and was so kind to confirm the family link.]
| [1] The piano company established by Lawrence continues to exist today, under a different ownership and management of course. The store is located at #885 Zhongshan Ave., Jiang'an, Wuhan [Hankow and two other cities, Wuchang and Hanyang, merged in 1926 to become Wuhan.] The Chinese name of the store remains the same as in the 1900s, i.e. 波衣也琴行. The English name becomes Boyiye Musical Instrument Shop. Boyiye is the phonetic translation of 波衣也, which in turn is the phonetic translation of Boyack. I have been contacted in January 2017 by the daughter of the current owner of the shop, Maggie Liu, who told me that Lawrence sold the business to Lin Zhengwen 林正文, her great grandfather (father of her grandmother) who was employed by the shop, in 1927. Her granduncle, Liu Wuyu 劉五育 ran the shop after Mr. Lin passed on, and now her father owns and operates the more than 100 years old business, which, as far as I know, is the oldest musical instruments shop in that city. |
| [2]Cecilia, Lawrence and Mary's first daughter, would later recall going with his father to inspect the junks; and the smells of opium smoke from below decks. |
| [3]Lawrence received this telegram from Alexander Cadogan, British Minister to China, “Peiping. The King has graciously approved that you be awarded the medal of the Order of the British Empire (Civil Division) for meritorious services. Formal notification is being sent by post from Shanghai. I would like to add my personal congratulations on this well-merited recognition of your long and loyal services to H.M. Government. Cadogan.” |
| [4] Hefilley was the name written in the US Congress record relating to Cecilia's residency application. The correct name probably is Haefeli, or Häfeli, in Swiss writing. There was a M. Haefeli listed under China Engineers Ltd. in 1941. [cit] |
Peter Quincey Wong
Peter Quincey Wong 王文昭, M.D. (b.1882, Hong Kong – d. November 22, 1948, Hong Kong) was the third son of William Quincey. He attended the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (HKCMC), and in 1903, he, as a senior student, was appointed by William Hunter, the Government Bacteriologist, to be his laboratory assistant. Dr. Hunter was leading an intensive study on the plague, while unfortunately one of the bacteriological assistants, Dr. Chan Fai-kwong, had died suddenly of Acute Yellow Atrophy. Peter Quincey, as he was known at the time, and another HKCMC senior student, Fung Chi-ming, were hand-picked by Hunter to carry on the systemic examination of rats. The appointment was for 8 months; their works were taken over by Laboratory Assistant, Dr. Lee Yin-sze, at the end of their appointments. There was no record that showed Peter had practiced medicine in Hong Kong immediately after graduating from HKCMC. It is quite likely that he went to Shanghai to join his father and others in the family as soon as he finished school in Hong Kong. When Quincey moved to Tsinan Fu, so did Peter; he was appointed the city's medical officer with the Sanitary Department. [cit]
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| Official photograph taken after the opening ceremony of the International Plague Conference, April 3, 1911. The original photo caption identified the man who stood in front of the door on the far right as Peter. There were three men standing in front of that door, I suppose it meant the tallest man in the center.[1] Credit: Report of the International Plague Conference Held at Mukden, April 1911. |
Peter, when exactly is unknown to me, returned to the place of his birth -- Hong Kong, where he practiced medicine in the private sector. He died at his residence at #173 Island Road 香島道 on November 22, 1948. He was survived by his wife, Rose Yeung (or Young), of Canton, and three sons: Martin[2], exchange broker, and Christopher, who was born on December 25, 1904 in Tientsin. I was unable to find information on the third son so far. According to the obituary in the China Mail, Peter was one of Hong Kong's oldest practicing doctors.
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| Sister Mary Teresita Wong. Credit: Maryknoll Mission Archives. |
[Sel.bibliog. Chu, C, ed., The Diaries of the Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 1921–1966, Springer, 2007, p.60.]
| [1] I took a closer look of the photo and surmised that the man on the far right on the last row is a better bet than the one I had previously picked. |
| [2] Martin Quincey Wong 王崑士 (b. October 30, 1908, probably in California - d. August 10, 1993, San Francisco). He was in possession of a U.S. Social Security Card #568963357, which corresponds to California, but was probably, as in the case of Phyllis, educated in Hong Kong. He was a pious Roman Catholic[a]; he was the President of the Chinese Catholic Club (1967, and probably in some other years) and one of the seven founders of the Serra Club of Hong Kong 香港培聖會 (1961). Martin owns a company in Hong Kong, M. Quincey Wong Co., Ltd. 王崑士有限公司, which he registered on September 12, 1975. Several changes of the company name took place between 1975 and 1995; the company was last known as Associated Capital Ltd. 旭峰國際有限公司. The business of the company was transferred on April 9, 2010 to Korea Money Brokerage Corporation in Seoul, but the day-to-day business was to carry on in Hong Kong. |
| [a] It appears that the families of both Peter and Charles were devout Catholics. |
Charles Quincey
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| 1903 photo titled “Guard, Chinese Regiment, Weihaiwei. Credit: Historical Photographs of China. |
[Thanks to David Deptford for providing the information regarding Charles being a recipient of the medal. Sel. bibliog. Denny Wong's letter to William Gordon Quincey, 4/29/2006. 刘军, 威廉·昆西：中国近代警务开拓者, 寻根 (Liu Jun, William Quincey, Pioneer of Modern Police Force in China, Roots), 2021, 4th issue.]
Lewis Patrick Wong-Quincey
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| A dandy portrait of L.P. Quincey. Credit: The Tatler, London, April 11, 1934, p.16. |
Patrick was married to Anna Magadalena Anderson (b.1901 – d. 10/4/1934, Shanghai), who was the daughter of Swedish national, Gustav Alexander Anderson[1]. Anna died on October 4, 1934 at the Shanghai General Hospital. She was buried at the Hungjao Road Cemetery [cit]. The report of her funeral in the October 5, 1934 issue of The China Mail said in the opening paragraph that both Patrick and Anna were "well known in the social circles". The couple was at that time living with Anna's parents at #742, Kiangwan Road 江灣路. Patrick and Anna had three children: Leonora (Nora) Patricia Quincey, William Gordon Quincey, and Terence Hugh Quincey. Patrick later married Pearl Irene (b.1908); the family continued to live in Shanghai until after the Pacific War. They were all interned between 1943 and 1945 [cit]. Patrick moved to the United States after the war and died in February 1984 in San Francisco [cit].
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| Nora Quincey. Credit: The Oklahoman. |
| Nora Quincey (4th) posted for this 1945 photo at Yangchow Camp C with four other women with loaves of bread resting on their laps; in the back row were members of the Bakery team D. Credit: Australian War Memorial. |
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| August 1945 photo of the Yangchow Internment Camp, Terence Quincey (holding emblem banner) posted with other inmates, young men known as the "Night Hawks", and their camp leader Geordie Grant. Credit: The Australian War Memorial. |
| [1] G.A. Anderson was a missionary belonging to the Scandinavian China Alliance Mission from Chicago, and came to China in or before 1905 working under the auspices of the China Inland Mission. He was stationed in Taichow {Taizhou} 台州 near Ningpo {Ningbo} in 1905, and in Kaifeng Fu 開封府 between 1906 and 1908. He was listed working for the British and Foreign Bible Society in Tientsin in 1918, and in Shanghai between 1930 and 1934. [cit] |
| [2] I'm making further investigations to see if Z.L. Koo was C.K. Koo (Koo Zongrui) 顧宗瑞 (b.1886-d.1972), modern China's first shipping magnate and the maternal grandfather of Hong Kong's first Chief Executive, Tung Chee-wah 董建華. Both Koo and T.Y. Tung hailed from Ningbo寧波市 |
- TO BE COMPLETED -
13 comments:
Very interesting - I have the original Hong Kong Plague Medal to Police Sergeant Phelps and also have the full list of Police recipients of the Hong Kong Plague medal. Karl Spencer (spence@netvigator.com)
Hi Karl, What a fantastic item to have in possession. Do you mind sharing with me if William Quincey was on your list. Thanks. Rudi
Hi Rudi,
Sadly he is not.
Karl
Thank you for letting me know, Karl. I was hoping that he was a recipient, but understandably, the medals were awarded to policemen, chiefly, who were assigned full time medical / health details and who had worked selflessly. I believe the only extraordinary duties that deterred Quincey from his regular detective responsibilities were house-to-house visitations and what was called the “scavenger duty”. Rudi
Hi Rudi - I apologize profusely ! Quincey was on the list ! The report states 'Inspector Quincey was employed on actual plague work for a few days only, his state of health not permitting, but he rendered valuable service as an interpreter in obtaining information on all matters connected with the movements of the Chinese and otherwise'.
On Friday 1st March 1895, Inspector Quincey received his Plague Medal from the Governor of Hong Kong at the parade ground of the old Central Police Station together with Chief Inspector Mathieson, and Inspectors Hennessy, Kemp, Mackie, Hanson, Man, and Acting Inspector Baker. My Sgt. Phelps received his medal at the same time.
Hope this helps.
Karl
Karl
No apology necessary, Karl, and I'm truly thankful for your letting me know. Since I've become quite a fan of Quincey's, I feel so much better now that I know he was an awardee of the medal. Rudi
Hi Rudi,
I came across your site completely by chance, while looking up an 1893 embezzlement case on the internet in which the absconding Treasury clerk, one A.F. Alves, was apprehended by Inspector Quincey -- and until I read your article, I had absolutely no idea that Quincey was Chinese!
Here are a couple of links to the Alves case:
http://www.lingkee.com/chist/html/chiculture/hk../cbfz/1893/1893_gksx.htm
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/dailyadvertiser18930307.2.5.aspx
Best, Trev
Hi Trev,
Thanks for the links, I'll certainly look them up. I first found Quincy's name in his naturalization document and I wondered why did a French want to become a British subject in Hong Kong...
Best wishes for the holiday season,
Rudi
Merry X'mas and Happy New Year!
I am a grandson of Agnes Boyack Bell, and I can confirm that she and I are both descendants of Quincy-Wong thru the daughter you mention.
Hi Dark Avenger,
Thank you for confirming Mrs. Bell's and your link to the Quincey-Wong family. Please feel welcome to write to me on rudibutt@hotmail.com if there are further information you could share in respect of branches of the Quincey-Wong family that were in Hankow.
I haven't finished reading this informative article but want to say to the author "Well-done!" I'm interested in John Wong-Quincey's life. There are 2 points I'd like to add. (1) John's book Chinese Hunter was not first published by John Day in USA. There was a British edition published the same year 1939 but earlier. This is because the manuscript was first smuggled to Europe and was accepted by the publisher Robert Hale in London. The golden dust jacket shown in your article is the American edition (with a tiger in the cover), while the British edition pictures a Chinese gentleman with a gun in the jacket. The British edition also carries its Chinese title 《幽并纪猎》 which is absent in the American edition. (2) among John's many students in Tsing Hua, some would become famous as playwrights later in 1930s/40s, including 李健吾、曹禺、张骏祥、杨绛. Mr Li (李健吾)not only translated John's two plays before 1949 but also did everything to enable the publication of The Selected Plays of John Wong-Quincey (《王文显戏剧选》）in 1983 by the People's Literature Press in Beijing, which should be credited for John's not being forgotten entirely in mainland China.
Jiangbo, Australia
Rudi, there is an interesting essay about John Wong-Quincey in a book titled Imperfect Understanding (1935) by Wen Yuan-ning. Wen was a English professor in Peking University before the war and knew John well. His book includes 17 articles about 17 eminent Chinese scholars such as Dr Hu Shih and John is among them. It's good reading.
Jiangbo
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