Winchester, Charles Alexander (Aberdeen)

Updated March 25, 2015

temp. Notes:
Physician-turned-diplomat

Qualifications: M.D., University of Aberdeen, 1841, dissertation on dysentery; Winchester studied at the University of Aberdeen on other subjects from 1836 to 1839. He had some medical training at University of St. Andrews in 1836-7.

A 1884 Winchester letter sent from Amoy

Charles Alexander Winchester (b. year unknown, Aberdeen - d. July 10, 1883, London) was in the British Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon of HMS Cornwallis (appointed on November 20, 1841). He arrived in China at an opportune time, towards the latter part of the First Opium War, that allowed him to witness the signing of the Treaty of Nanking on August 29, 1842 on board the Cornwallis. Some time before the establishment of the British occupation government on March 31, 1842, Winchester was made the island's first assistant Surgeon. He was appointed to the Committee of Public Health and Cleanliness on August 17, 1843. The committee was headed by Peter Young. On October 19, 1843, he was made surgeon for the British legation in Amoy (Xiamen) and appointed British Consul at the same station in the beginning of 1850s, from there he gave up medicine and became a full time diplomat. The photo on the left shows a 1884 Winchester letter sent from Amoy. Winchester went to Japan in 1862, assuming the position of British Consul in Nagasaki, a year later he became the British Consul in Yokohama. He went back to China in 1865 as the British Council General in Shanghai. A small road that ran down the side of the Bank of China's art-deco warehouse which overlooked Soochow Creek was named after him, the Winchester Road 文极司脱路 (present day Wenanlu in Zhabei District 上海閘北區文安路). He retired in 1871 and left Shanghai for London where he died in 1883.

Winchester was born to Charles Winchester (b.1781) and Margaret Day. Winchester senior was a notary public by profession. He was at one time Clerk to the Commutation Road Trustee of the Town of Aberdeen District. He was a member of the Aberdeen University's General Council, a member of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen, as well as a prominent member of the Aberdeen Lodge of Freemasons. Winchester's elder brother, James Webster Winchester, had a doctor degree in law. He was at one time the Deputy-Inspector General of Hospital, Indian Medical Services, Bombay (Mumbai); and subsequently Secretary of the Conservative Club in Edinburgh. Winchester was married to Jane Black (b. August 18, 1820 – d. October 11, 1967) who died in Shanghai and was buried at the Shantung Road Cemetery 山東路公墓. Their son, Charles Blake Winchester (b.1852, probably in Amoy), was a barrister, who at one time was the assistant Collector and Magistrate of Bombay.

Selected bibliography: Biographical Dictionary of Medical Practitioners in Hong Kong: 1841-1941 [online].

Yule, John Alexander (Celtic [Edinburgh & Leith])

Updated March 23, 2015

[Entered Celtic Lodge 291 (October 20, 1857).]

Yule was born in Scotland in 1837. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. He joined the British Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon on October 20, 1859. Yule came to Hong Kong no later than 1864 as he was appointed Superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital on June 21, 1864 (vice John Dollman, new appointment as Health Officer and Surgeon, Stone Cutters' Island Convict Hulk). He resigned in November the same year. Yule died on board SS Euxine on the homeward passage from Hong Kong on April 10 (or 16), 1866.

Yule was born to John Yule Jr. (d. May 15, 1851), Writer of Signet, and J. Morrison Browne (d. August 29, 1870), daughter of Robert Browne and Marion Morrison. Yule had two daughters, Jane Yule and Georgiana Yule. #11 St John Street, Edinburgh was listed as Yule's address in 1857.

Biographical Dictionary of Medical Practitinoers in Hong Kong: 1841-1941 [online].

Ma Luk 馬祿臣

Updated March 23, 2015

temp. Notes:

Ma Luk. Credit: The Chinese Club, Hong Kong.

b.1882, Hunan 湖南 (or 1883, Hong Kong) – d.1963, Hong Kong. Variant name(s): in Chinese 馬六. Hong Kong nlt.1900.

HONG KONG. LMSHK 1905. Authorized to practice July 8, 1908 - EOP^[1]. Public Dispensary, West Point 1908. Private practitioner net.1908-EOP, address: 3/F., King's Theatre Building (tel: 26504) 1941. Authorized medical practitioner to sign medical certificates of death 1908-EOP. Inaugural directors of the board of Yeung Wo Nursing Home 1922. Vice President, HKCMA 1933-34. Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, status of the practice unknown. Resumed practice after the war nlt.1948-1960 (or shortly before he died in 1963) at prewar address, with two sons, Ma Chiu-chong 馬超莊 and Ma Chiu-ki 馬超奇. Chairman, Chinese Club 華商會所 1900-1927. Freemason^[2]. Ma died by heart failure in his Caine Road residence in the small hours of February 4, 1936. The funeral service was held in the St. John Cathedral two days later; he was buried at the Christian Cemetery in Pok Fu Lam Road 薄扶林道基督教墳場 (present day Hong Kong Christian Churches Union Pok Fu Lam Road Cemetery).

m. Li Huiying 李惠英 (educator, lawyer and promoter of Taiwan Strait relations; remarried writer and political commentator Tao Mulian 陶慕廉 after Ma's death). Had issues: 1. Ma Chiu-chong 馬超莊; 2. Ma Chiu-ki 馬超奇. 3. Ma Chiu-kuen 馬超權 (later Ma Shiu Kwan 馬兆君); 4. Ma Kwai-ying 馬桂英 [please refer to the comments (below) posted by Mr. Kent Ma on October 25, 2014]. According to the February 5, 1936 issue of the Wen Wei Po 文匯報, which had reported Ma's passing, Ma was survived by his wife, three sons, two daughters, seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

[Ma was a good friend and keen supporter of Sun Yat-sen.]

[1] LMSHK was the qualification awarded to graduates of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese HKCMC (1887-1912). Holders of LMSHK were not authorized to practice as private practitioners until July 8, 1908^[a]. From that day on they were permitted to practice as "exempted persons", but not to be listed in the Medical Register and not be addressed officially as "Dr".

[a] There were hospital appointments, more particularly at missionary or charitable hospitals, prior to 1908. For instance, Kwan King-leung 關景良, LMSHK 1893, was permitted to practice at the Alice Memorial Hospital 1893.

[2] A source I have consulted says Ma was the first Chinese member of the Masonic order in Hong Kong. This cannot be true, early Chinese freemasons in Hong Kong had included such people as Ho Kai and Wei Yuk, years before Ma’s time.

Selected bibliography: Chinese Club, Hong Kong [internet]. The Hong Kong Government Gazette, July 10, 1908, Notice #482; May 9, 1941, Notice #558.

Jordan, Gregory Paul

Updated March 22, 2015

[Member, Board of Trustees of the Hong Kong and South China Masonic Benevolence Fund (1893, at the time when an application was made to the Legislative Council to incorporate the Fund).]

temp. notes:

Gregory Paul Jordan

Jordan, Gregory Paul (1885-1921)
(updated August 27, 2013) b. February 6, 1858, Calcutta – d. December 4, 1921, London. Edinburgh Univ., MB August 2, 1880; CM October 21, 1884. Studied in Vienna and Paris, and at St. Thomas’s Hospital. Registered to practice Hong Kong June 6, 1885. Private practitioner, name partner, Drs. Adams and Jordan 1885-89+, address: Pedder Street 1885-89 (the practice would evolve into Drs. Anderson & Partners); principal partner, Drs. Jordan, Forsyth, Grove & Aubrey 1921-24+, address: Alexandra Building 1921-24+. HKGov., Provisional Health Officer of the Port and Inspector of Immigrants (vice William Stanley Adams, resigned) May 1, 1888; Surgeon-Superintendent of Police ca.1914-18. Consulting Surgeon, Alice Memorial Hospital. HKBMA, co-founder and inaugural Secretary September 1886. HKCMC, member of Founding Committee 1887; lecturer in Eye Diseases 1903-12; head of Surgical Department 1889-96. HKU, first Pro-Vice-Chancellor 1913-21; first professor, Tropical Medicine 1915-21; acting Chancellor 1918-12; life member of University Court since 1911; University Senate 1912. Freemasony: first Grand Master, District Grand Lodge, Hong Kong and South China November 3, 1904 - 1921. Club: Hong Kong Club. Residence: #36 Caine Road 1885-1888+. Left Hong Kong for England due to ill-health 1921. Honor: Hon.LLD, HKU 1921; naming of Jordan Road in Kowloon [1].
[Jordan was the nephew of Paul Chater, Hong Kong’s first property tycoon.]
[1] Six Street and Gascoigne Road South was renamed Jordan Road on March 19, 1909.  Gascoigne Road 加士居道 is named after Major-General William Julius  Gascoigne, Commander of British Troops in China and Hong Kong and Hong Kong's last Lieutenant Governor 1898-1902.

Selected bibliography: The Hong Kong Government Gazette, June 6, 1885, Notice; March 19, 1909, Notice #184; June 2, 1911, Appt. #163. Mellor, Bernard, Lugard in Hong Kong: Empire, Education and A Governor at Work, 1907-1912, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1992.

[2] HKCMC teaches transferred to the staff of the Faculty of Medicine, HKU in 1912 were: Francis William Clark, Charles Forsyth, Arthur C. Franklin, Gregory Paul Jordan, Frederick Theobald Keyt, Wilfred Vincent Miller Koch, Harold MacFarlane, Oswald Marriott and Wilfred William Pearse.

Selected bibliography: The Hong Kong Government Gazette, April 1, 1893, p.255.

Ho Kai (St. John's)

Updated March 22, 2015

Selected bibliography: Choa, G.H., The Life and Times of Sir Kai Ho Kai, The Chinese University Press, 2000, p.27.

Clark, Francis

Updated December 23, 2014

[Deputy District Grand Master, Hong Kong and South China, EC 91910)]
Clark was the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong and was instrumental in the formation of the University of Hong Kong Lodge No.3666. It was him, as the Deputy Grand Master, who forwarded the application to the Grand Master in Scotland.

Selected bibliography: Choa, G.H., The Life and Times of Sir Kai Ho Kai, The Chinese University Press, 2000, p.27. The Straits Times, April 5, 1910, p.7, Freemasonry at Hong Kong.

Ayres, Philip Bernard Chenery (Perseverance)

Updated December 19, 2014

[Master, Perseverance Lodge 1165 (1883)]

Selected bibliography: Hong Kong Telegraph, November 23, 1882.

temp. notes:

MRCS, LM (Eng.); LRCP (Edin.) August 1, 1865. Hong Kong 1873. Hong Kong Government, Colonial Surgeon November 4, 1873. Registered to practice Hong Kong May 3, 1884 through 1888. Residence: #27 Caine Road 1884.

[Ayres was one of the first nine doctors who registered as medical practitioners in Hong Kong immediately following the enactment of the "Medical Registration Ordinance, 1884" that required all doctors to be licensed before they could treat patients for monetary reward. The nine were: William Stanley Adams, Philip Bernard Chenery Ayres, Johann Gerhard Heinrich Gerlach, Antonio Simplieio Gomes, William M. Hartigan, John H. Lockhead, Patrick Manson, James Stockwell, and Richard Young.]

Selected bibliography: The Hong Kong Government Gazette, November 8, 1873, Notice #172; May 3, 1884, Notice; May 5, 1888, Notice #181.

The last Colonial Surgeon (1873-1897)

Philip Bernard Chenery Ayres

b.July 13, 1840 Oxfordshire – d. October 12, 1899 Kent; son of Philip Burnard Ayres (M.D., London; Chief Medical Officer of the Civil Hospital, Mauritius; lecturer in chemistry at Charing Cross Hospital); M.R.C.S.Eng; M.L.R.C.P.Edin; government medical officer posted in Mauritius and India; arrived in Hong Kong (November 1873) to take up the position of Colonial Surgeon and Inspector of Hospitals (and would become the longest serving Colonial Surgeon – twenty four years); the following establishment were under the purview of the Colonial Surgeon: Police, Troops, Government Civil Hospital, Tung Wah Hospital, Victoria Gaol, Lock Hospital, Health of the Colony, and Sanitation, the Lunatic Asylum was added in 1884 when it as established; annual salary GBP600, allowed to carry on private practice whilst holding the public office aiming to make up the difference of GBP200 ( Ayres had asked for GBP800 per year); oversight the opening of the Government Civil Hospital; instituted the nursing staff of trained nurses from the London Hospital (1889); played a pivotal role in fostering a higher standard in sanitation including institutionalized the Sanitary Board (1883); handled the epidemic of Plague (1894); Master of the Hong Kong Masonic Order, Officer of the District Grand Lodge of China; health began to fail in 1895; home leave (1896, this is the first and only home leave Ayres had ever took since arriving in 1873); retired (1897); died two years later at the age of 59; wrote in his last report before retiring, "What all my reports could not do the epidemic has done.", referring to the drastic improvement in sanitation standard following the epidemic; after his retirement, the position of Colonial Surgeon was changed to Principal Civil Medical Officer.

Annual Salary of some government officials in 1875 (in GBP)

Chief Judge	2,500
Puisne Judge	1,700
Attorney General	1,000
Postmaster General	900
Registrar General	800
Captain Superintendent of Police	800
Superintendent of the Gaol	700
Colonial Surgeon	600

(It will be interesting to find out why the Postmaster General was so generously paid...)

Ainslie, David Hunter (Zetland)

Updated December 18, 2014

temp. note:
Hong Kong nlt.1860. Hong Kong Government, Acting Colonial Surgeon (vice John Ivor Murray, absence on leave) December 15, 1860 - May 8, 1861.

Selected bibliography: The Hong Kong Government Gazette, December 22, 1860, Notice #143; May 11, 1861, Notice #53.

Adams, William Stanley (St. John's)

Updated December 18, 2014

[Deputy District Grand Master, Hong Kong and South China, E.C. (1882)]

temp. notes:
The Forefather of Drs. Anderson & Partners.

Name variations: William Stanley Stanley-Adams [1]. b.1842, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire - d. January 10, 1898, Brentford, Middlesex. MD, CM (Glas.) April 15, 1862. Hong Kong nlt.1864. RS, Seamen's Hospital 1864-73. Hong Kong Government, Health Officer of the Port (vice James Orr Henderson, resigned) April 21, 1868; Medical Inspector of Emigrants April 21, 1868. Registered to practice Hong Kong May 3, 1884 through 1892. Private practitioner 1887-92; founder, Drs. Adams and Jordan 1885 [or 1887], address: Pedder Street 1887-89; the practice would evolve into Drs. Anderson & Partners. Hon. Assistant Surgeon, HKVDC July 23, 1864. Trustee, St. John's Cathedral May 4, 1885 and May 3, 1886. JP (unofficial) February 21, 1885. Residence: Forest Lodge, #11 Caine Road 1884. Retired, Edmonton, Middlesex 1892. General Council, Glasgow Univ.[n.d.].

s/o John Adams, b.ca.1815-d.1891.
m. Sussy Blanche Mary Hugo [2].

[Adams was one of the first nine doctors who registered as medical practitioners in Hong Kong immediately following the enactment of the "Medical Registration Ordinance, 1884" that required all doctors to be licensed before they could treat patients for monetary reward. The nine were: William Stanley Adams, Philip Bernard Chenery Ayres, Johann Gerhard Heinrich Gerlach, Antonio Simplieio Gomes, William M. Hartigan, John H. Lockhead, Patrick Manson, James Stockwell, and Richard Young.]

[Adams was said to have held the position of Colonial Surgeon, but I found no other references to confirm this. The only thing I could find that linked him to the top medical office in Hong Kong was that he lived next door to Philip Bernard Chenery Ayres, Hong Kong's last Colonial Surgeon (1873-1897, the position was renamed Principal Civil Medical Officer following Ayres' retirement). Ayres lived in a house called Dinder, #13 Caine Road.]

[1] Adams had his named changed to William Stanley Stanley-Adams while sojourning in Hong Kong, for unknown reason(s).

[2] Adams married Susan (Sussy) Blanche Mary Hugo (b. April 11, 1848, Jersey, Channel Islands - d. Jan 28, 1940, Heston, Middlesex) at St. John's Cathedral in Hong Kong in 1867. Hugo was the daughter of Harper Richard Hugo and Blanche Leggatt. Adams and Hugo had eight children: Hilda Agneta Bertha Stanley-Adams, Blanche J. Adams, Maude Beatrice Stanley-Adams, Stanley Hugo Stanley-Adams, Mabel Gertrude Adams, Percy Hugo Adams, Ethel Constance Adams, and Herbert Hugo St. Leger Stanley-Adams. They were all born in Hong Kong where the family lived in a house named Forest Lodge at #11 Caine Road. Julia Hugo, Susan's sister, lived with the family in 1885. Her husband, William Kaye, worked for the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in London.

Selected bibliography: Chronicle Directory for China, Japan, & The Philippines (1872) Hong Kong: Daily Press. Family Tree of Edna Killick and Terry Smith [internet]. Dennys, Nicholas Belfield (Ed.) The Treaty Ports of China and Japan, a Complete Guide to the Open Ports of those Countries, together with Peking, Yedo, Hongkong and Macao, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1867. The Hong Kong Government Gazette, April 9, 1864, Notice #63; July 23, 1864, Notice #119; April 25, 1868, Notice #47; February 27, 1869, Notice #20; May 3, 1884, Notice; February 21, 1885, Notice #73; May 9, 1885, Notice #188; May 8, 1886, Notice #159; May 7, 1892, Notice #206. Hugo, F.H.M. (Ed.) A Pedigree of The Family of Hugo of St. Feock, Co. Cornwall, Guernsey: Frederick Clarke, 1932. Private Residences of the Principal Government Officials, the Leading Merchants, the Consuls, Professional Men, and Justices of the Peace (1884), Hong Kong: Daily Press, pp.398-399. University of Glasgow › Biography of William Stanley Adams [internet].

Selected bibliography: Biographical Dictionary of Medical Practitioners in Hong Kong: 1841-1941 [online]. Hong Kong Telegraph, December 12, 1882, p.2.