Welcome

Welcome


Preface

Finding Freemasons in Hong Kong has always been something I wanted to tackle ever since I began my research on early residents of Hong Kong. By nature, it is a difficult task because the Masonic Order was a secret society (and still is, even though a lot less so)^[1]. On top of that, I have read, almost all of the pre-1942 records of Freemasons and their lodges in Hong Kong were destroyed during the Pacific War. None of these, however, do much to deter my blind ambition to embark on this journey. Why? “Because it's there.” I do realize it's kind of cocksure for me to quote these words, after all I'm no George Mallory and this remark was made after he came down from the Everest, not when he was heading up... but here I am, it hasn't been done yet (as far as I know) so it is mine to claim being the first. (11/6/2014)

[1] Speaking of secret societies, Masonic Lodges were up for close scrutiny by the Legislature in 1887 to determine if they were indeed secretive. An exclusion clause was singularly added to the Bill for the amendment of the Ordinance No.2 of 1887, titled “An Ordinance for the Suppression of the Triad Society and other Secret Societies and for the Punishment of the Members thereof”, that said, “Article 11. This Ordinance shall not apply to any and duly constituted Masonic Lodge.” Whoever proposed this additional provision clearly had esteemed Masonic societies to be in the same league as the Triad^[a]. The addition of Article 11 did not meet with the approval of the Legislative Council...

[a] To set the record straight, The Triad wasn't a criminal syndicates back in the nineteenth century. It was actually formed with the aim to overthrow the Manchurian rule of China; the Hong Kong Government, at the request of Qing Government, outlawed Triad in colony.

Masonic Lodges

Eastern Scotia Lodge No. 923 S.C.^[1] (chartered February 6, 1902)
Naval and Military Lodge No. 848 S.C. (chartered May 6, 1897)
Perseverance Lodge No. 1165 E.C.^[2]
Royal Sussex Lodge No. 735 E.C.
St John's Lodge No. 618 S.C.
United Service Lodge No. 1341 E.C.
University Lodge No..3666 E.C.
Victoria Lodge No. 1026 E.C.
Zetland Lodge No. 525 E.C.

[1] Scottish Constitution.
[2] English Constitution.

Freemasons

See "The Roll" on the sidebar.


Notes:

1. As in the case of other biographical dictionaries I am compiling, the first order of business is to find as many names as possible and put them in the roll, adding basic information where possible. Once that's done, I will then begin to work on the biography of each subject individual.
2. The word “unknown” used in this post generally means “unknown to me” as opposed to nobody knows. In some cases, these are matters I think I know but do not know for a fact.