History of The Chiu Yuen Eurasian Cemetery
Eric Peter Ho, Tracing My Children's Lineage
(The University of Hong Kong, 2010)
Chapter 18
THE CHIU YUEN CEMETERY
I believe there was no premeditated plan for the establishment of The Chiu Yuen Cemetery (昭遠墳場) as a cemetery for the Eurasian community. From the 1890s, a movement had been developing from the Chinese community for the establishment of a permanent cemetery for the burial of their dead. Indeed, Ho Fook and Ho Kom-tong were among the protagonists. I believe it was the sudden death of Ms. Shi, Ho Tung, Ho Fook and Ho Kom-tong’s mother, in April 1896, and her burial at Mount Davis, which prompted the Ho brothers to petition the Government on behalf of the Eurasian community for a grant of land for this purpose.
The history of cemetery development in Hong Kong indicates that a sectorial approach had been adopted by the Authorities. Some might even say it was sectarian, in favour of non-indigenous newcomers. As early as 1841, Protestant and Roman Catholic cemeteries had been established in adjoining sites in the general area of what is now Sun, Moon, Star and St. Francis Streets in Wanchai. The Military Cemetery at Stanley (now part of the War Cemetery) also contains early burials. As for the newcomers in the Chinese community who died, those whose families could afford it were returned to their native villages for burial. The remainder, as with the indigenous villagers, would bury their dead where they considered appropriate or convenient.
In 1845, the swampy Wongneichung area of what is now called Happy Valley was drained and the farms cleared. A road around the valley was constructed. The Colonial Cemetery was then established and a chapel built, the costs being met from public funds. Soon afterwards the Roman Catholics were granted a smaller cemetery site adjacent to the Colonial Cemetery. The Parsees (Zoroastrians) and the Muslims were given similar sites on each side of the Colonial and Roman Catholic Cemeteries, respectively, the Muslim Cemetery being granted in 1868 in exchange for their previous cemetery in the Breezy Path area. The Jews also got their own cemetery on higher ground within the Wongneichung Valley.
In contrast to all this, Ordinance No.12 of 1856 was enacted "to regulate Chinese burials, and to prevent certain nuisances". This ordinance authorised the Governor-in-Council to select and appoint Chinese burial grounds and to close and remove any such cemetery or burial ground. Burials not in designated cemeteries or burial grounds attracted a maximum fine of $100 but not less than $5. Following this enactment, the Government Gazette of 21 June 1856 published Government Notification No. 71 of 19 June 1856 as follows:
In accordance with the provisions of Sections II and III of Ordinance No. 12 of 1856, entitled An Ordinance to regulate Chinese Burials, and to prevent certain Nuisances, within the Colony of Hong Kong, His Excellency the Governor in Executive Council is pleased to notify that,
From and after the First Proximo the Western Chinese Cemetery will be closed.
In lieu thereof, Mount Davis will until further Orders be set apart for the purpose of Chinese Burial. The existing Chinese Cemetery will be retained on the Eastern side of the Wongneichung Valley. These two will be the only places in which it shall be lawful for the Chinese Inhabitants of this City to inter their Dead. The Mount Davis Cemetery will be appropriated to the districts West of Hawan, and the Wongneichung Cemetery to Hawan and the districts East thereof.
From the foregoing it would appear that the whole of Mount Davis was at one time open for Chinese burials and that the Wongneichung Cemetery was what subsequently became known as Coffee Garden at Mount Caroline. The Government Gazette of 2 September 1882 published two government notifications, Nos. 353-54, of 28 August 1882, under the 1856 Ordinance, and designated, respectively:
a) A site on Mount Davis, marked by four boundary stones and measuring on the North thereof 40 feet, on the South thereof 40 feet, on the East thereof 60 feet, and on the West thereof 60 feet, and bounded on the four sides thereof by Crown Land, as a Cemetery or Place of Burial for Chinese; and
b) 43 acres between Pokfulam Road and Sandy Bay as a Place of Burial for Chinese Christians.
The Chinese Christian Cemetery remains at this location. But, at the time of my enquiries in the late 1980s, the Director of Buildings and Lands, even after consulting with the Land Office and the Public Records Office, could find no plan of any nature attached to the former notification. He suggested that it could well have referred to an isolated burial ground for a single large grave or for a group of graves, which was common at that time.
The Public Health Ordinance of 1887 repeated the old provisions and penalties in respect of Chinese burials, which apparently did not apply to the others. It is not clear whether it was Chinese resentment over being singled out in this legislation, or pressure for the establishment of a permanent cemetery for Chinese who had settled and prospered in Hong Kong, or for common public health reasons, but Ordinance No. 4 of 1890 repealed the offending sections in the Public Health Ordinance and replaced them with general provisions covering all cemeteries. In particular, the Governor-in-Council was authorised to close any cemetery, and the Governor was empowered to authorise new cemeteries. A schedule listed the Colonial, Roman Catholic, Mohammedan, Zoroastrian and Jewish cemeteries at Happy Valley, and the French Mission Cemetery at Pokfulam as authorised cemeteries, and presumably brought them under the provisions of the Ordinance.
In this apparently more enlightened atmosphere Great-Grandmother Ms. Shi was buried at Mount Davis in April 1896. Members of other Eurasian families were already buried in the vicinity, so Ho Tung and Ho Fook, Justices of the Peace, applied to the Governor for the grant of the area as a Eurasian cemetery. (I believe Ho Tung and Ho Fook were the only Eurasian Justices of the Peace at the time.) Although a copy of that application or the specific grounds advanced for the grant is not extant in the Public Records Office, the Crown Rent Roll Christmas, 1896, contains the following entry:
Lot Holder Rent Remarks
1415 Ho Tung & another $1.00 p.a. Eurasian Cemetery
The authorisation of this cemetery was eventually notified in the Government Gazette of 27 November 1897, as Government Notification No.522 of 25 November 1897:
It is hereby notified that His Excellency the Governor having authorised the Cemeteries or Burial-grounds, hereafter mentioned, under authority of section 3 of Ordinance No.4 of 1890, the same are to be deemed ‘Authorised Cemeteries’ within the meaning of the said Ordinance.
EURASIAN CEMETERY
Situated on the SE slope of Mount Davis off the Pokfulam Road, bordered on the North side by Government ground and measuring 210 feet, on the South side closing on Mount Davis Cemetery and measuring 457 feet, on the East side by Government ground and a footpath leading to the Cattle Market and measuring 756 feet, and on the West side by Government ground and measuring 500 feet. The limits of the Cemetery have been defined by boundary stones.
In 1899 the grantees applied for an extension of Inland Lot 1415 on the grounds that there were many Chinese graves within the existing lease plan near the southern boundary which they were unwilling to disturb. In consequence the cemetery was almost entirely occupied, and the space remaining available was too limited to meet the future requirements of the Eurasian community. They therefore sought an additional area of 107,536 square feet, largely to the north of the original area but also including a strip along the east boundary onto which three graves, apparently those of the Sin, Lam and Ho ancestors which predated the original grant, had protruded. This application was eventually acceded to in 1914, when it was also discovered that the original grant had not been submitted to the Secretary of State for the Colonies for his approval, as was then necessary in respect of all private treaty land grants. It appears the Colonial Office treated this transgression with good humour, observing that, as the original grant took place seventeen years earlier, it was rather late to object, and the extension was agreed to as well. This explains why it was only on 13 December 1915 that Inland Lot 1415 was formally granted premium-free to Sir Robert Ho Tung and Ho Fook, as trustees, for use as a cemetery for the Eurasian community of Hong Kong for 999 years dating from 1 March 1897.
The early interments within the boundaries of this cemetery by Eurasian families include those of Sin Chung Sze and Sin Lam Sze before the end of 1892. This plot was eventually registered as a joint grave and became the first entry in Chiu Yuen Cemetery’s General Register of Interments. The Ho family grave was the second entry, and that of Sin Wong Sze (Sin Tak-fan’s mother, who died in 1898) was the third. There were three Lam family graves registered in 1901 as entries 17, 18 and 19 with dates of burial in 1894; these now form one composite grave with an amalgamated headstone with ten names. This headstone states it was established in the winter of 1893-94, and renovated in the winter of 1934-35.¹ The grave of Margaret Lady Ho Tung’s mother, Mak Ng Sze, was registered at No. 36 in 1904 with the note ‘renovation’; it is possible she had been resting there since her death before 1882, and in 1904 her son-in-law, Ho Tung, as an act of filial piety, upgraded and rebuilt the structure. In 1914, two Shi family graves were registered with the note ‘renovation’: No. 30, the grave of Shi Yip Sze, and No. 32, the joint grave of Mr. & Mrs. Shi Bing-kwong. In fact, Shi Yip Sze passed away in 1901, and Shi Bing-kwong’s first wife died at the turn of the century; their joint grave was established on his death in 1905.
In the drafting of the constitution of The Welfare League in 1930, consideration had been given to whether the League’s aims should include the possible management of Chiu Yuen Cemetery. The conclusion was that, because the prospective members of the former body were necessarily of different religions, provision for the care of cemeteries should not be included. Nevertheless, at the suggestion of Sir Robert Ho Tung, an express provision was included in The Welfare League constitution for meeting the cost of burials in necessitous cases: this provision remains in the League’s Memorandum of Association as one of its objects. Of course, subsequent experience has shown that, although the bulk of the interments at Chiu Yuen followed traditional Chinese rites, a number of Christian burials, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, have also taken place therein.
Following Ho Fook’s death in 1926, Sir Robert managed the cemetery as the sole surviving trustee until his own death in 1956. After Sir Robert’s death, The Chiu Yuen Cemetery was incorporated on 1 April 1958, by guarantee under the Companies Ordinance, and approved by the Governor. The Memorandum of Association specifically stipulates that the object of the company is to assume the trust for The Chiu Yuen Cemetery. The Articles of Association follow standard lines and include provision for a management committee elected annually.
It is not surprising that the small segment of the general public who are aware of this cemetery refer to it as the Ho Tung family cemetery. What is perhaps more surprising is that, in a recent publication to record his life and achievements, the descendants of Ho Kom-tong have included a chapter on Ho Chong (何莊), based on family oral history.² It is asserted therein that, thanks to Ho Kom-tong’s personal intercession with the Military Authorities in London, he and his brothers were able to buy the land at Mount Davis in 1897. As he had negotiated the deal he was able to keep Ho Chong as his private cemetery, and his brothers became trustees for The Chiu Yuen Eurasian Cemetery. I fear this account is at variance with the facts set out above. What is more, Ho Chong is not a separate private cemetery. It lies within the boundary of Inland Lot 1415, and is thus part of The Chiu Yuen Cemetery. However, Ho Kom-tong may be commended for terracing a whole hillside at Ho Chong, thus creating many more burial sites than would have been possible with traditional graves cradled by earth banks.
In their care and management of The Chiu Yuen Cemetery, the management committee must have regard to Government regulations concerning cemeteries and the Conditions of Grant of Inland Lot 1415. An obvious responsibility is the application of ther term ‘Eurasian community’ to individual cases. I can remember cases arising during my time on the committee. No doubt, the current and future committees will have to continue to exercise their judgement in this regard.
From the time of first incorporation of The Chiu Yuen Cemetery in 1958, and at regular intervals thereafter, perhaps, the most onerous task of the committee has been to appeal to members for funds to undertake essential maintenance work. The latest, and possibly the most serious, was occasioned by the rainstorms of August 2005, which gave signs of a major landslide which could engulf a large area to the north of the cemetery. In the appeal, the hope was expressed that sufficient funds would be raised, not only to make good the damage but also provide for the future. Close to $18 million has been raised, thanks to donations of $4 million each from Stanley Ho, George Ho, Robert H.N. Ho and family, and Sir Joseph Hotung, respectively, and $1 million from the Tse family. The committee has also sought to buttress the cemetery’s finances by a radical revision of its scale of fees and charges.
Notes:
1. Although this grave has not been attended to for some time, Wilfred Tyson, grandson of Chan Kai-ming, recalls that his Lam cousins used to treat this as their ancestral grave. On this basis, my surmise is that the name in the senior position on the composite headstone 妣林李氏老太 is the matriarch of the Lam family, and mother of the four Bardou sisters, whose progeny include many of Hong Kong’s leading Eurasian families. See chapter 1, note 10.
2. Tse Liu, F., Ho Kom-tong: A Man For All Seasons (Hong Kong: Compradore House Ltd., 2003).