From what I know of the Hunter family, none were Catholic. My grandfather and and his brother George were both married in Anglican churches; my grandfather at St Andrews in Kowloon and his brother George in Leeds, England. Their sister May was either  church of England or Anglican, but not Catholic as far as I know.

When James’s wife died in 1933 she was buried at St Michael’s Catholic Cemetery in Happy Valley and when their daughter passed away in 1944 she was placed with her mother and her name was added to the grave.

The cemetery record book from St Michael’s has the two burials cross-referenced to each other as pictured in the entries below. The graves are 9347 and 5877. There’s a discrepancy in Ellen Hunter’s Chinese name, which was apparently a transcript of a Chinese name. It was Fok Shuk Wah. She was not married.

James Hunter himself died in 1937 and is buried in the main colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley and NOT with his wife and daughter even though it seems he had become a Catholic, and even if not, from what I’ve heard, he’d have been allowed to be buried alongside his wife and daughter.

A recent new theory has come to light. James was a teacher or so it is stated in his obituary. There’s a possibility that maybe he converted in order to obtain a teaching position. Maybe a Catholic school would have required or at least preferred their staff to be of the faith?

The Hunter family residence was 11 Shelley Street, Hong Kong. The location was first registered about 1897. Over the years, deaths in the family have all been listed with this address. The lady we believe is my great grandmother, Anne Hunter alias Kot Choy, died there Jan 31, 1937. Prior to this, my grandfather’s brother’s wife Emma Hunter died there June 14, 1933, followed by James Hunter August 8, 1937 and lastly his daughter Ellen, Nov 18, 1944.

When Emma Hunter died, I looked up her funeral attendees to see if I could come up with any new leads. Besides a lot of Choa family members, there was a J. D. Bush. Looking into him I found that James Daniel Bush lived at 9 Shelley Street which was next door. He was an American born in Shanghai. His father was Frederick Bush of New York, so he claimed American status by parentage. JD Bush had two brothers, Edred Drummond Bush, a merchant of groceries and metals in Shanghai and William Bush. All were born in Shanghai.

Looking further into James Daniel Bush, I found that like his neighbor ( my great uncle James Hunter ) he was also a school teacher. J.D. Bush was married to Victoria Ho, who survived him until 1974. I’m still trying to find out where they taught school.

I came across a photo of William Bush ( the Bush brothers were much alike in looks ) and the resemblance to my grandfather was noticeable. That’s Bush on the right and my grandfather and my aunt Nora on the left. Of course clothing styles of the era and habitat had an influence, but it’s still quite a likeness.

 My great uncle James Hunter had a concubine. This bit of information was discovered in a line from his daughter Ellen Hunter’s probate. Ellen Hunter alias “Fok Shu Wah” died November 18, 1944 but the probate was not processed until after the war and in fact not until 1947.

When Ellen died intestate, age 46, her step mother, Woo Siu Ying, age 43, petitioned for administration of Ellen’s estate. Her claim was based on her relationship to Ellen’s father ( she was his concubine ) Her address was given as 11 Shelley Street, the long time Hunter abode.

There was a co-petitioner, Ip Fok Shi, nee Fok Shuk Chun, age 40, claiming a position as adopted sister.

Neither of the petitioners claimed any blood relationship to Ellen Hunter or to either of her parents. Her mother is listed as Emma Hunter who died in June 14 of 1933 and her father James who died August 8, 1937.

The beginning of the concubinage between James Hunter and Woo Siu Ying is not stated but is presumably post 1933 after the death of his wife Emma. This is of course just guessing as the taking of a concubine during the course of a marriage was not unheard of.

Another question might be how the relationship of “adopted sister”  Fok Shuk Chun, came about? ( note the names “Fok Shuk” for both Ellen and her adopted sister! )Lastly who was Ip? It’s a married name  and later land registry records show ownership of the Shelley Street property by two IP family members.

*Note line 3a. The deceased was a Chinese domiciled in Hong Kong. Is this a reference to her nationality or ethnicity?

The Hong Kong Government has a wonderful site that is also very user friendly. A simple search query will bring up three tabs as shown. The main two I use are the archives and the “Carl Smith Collection”. The latter of these was a done by the Rev Carl T Smith, who took it upon himself to record ann catalogue thousands of items from Newspapers, Public records, Court filings etc. It has now been digitized and is available to the public on-line. It is free. 

I’ve had amazing results from this site; most recently finding the probate documents for my grandfather’s niece who died in 1944. I will elaborate on that later as it’s a story inself

There’s a link below. 

https://search.grs.gov.hk/en/index.xhtml

Another great free source is the Hong Kong Public Library “Multi Media Information System or MMIS. 
They have a web portal that might look a little confusing as there’s a lot there, but I use only the “Collections” tab and then “Old HK Newspapers”
The “China Mail” and the “Hong Kong Daily Press” go back to the 1800s and have produced excellent results. They are quite easy to search. There are also a few weekly publications in the list as well as several Chinese Language papers that I’m sure would be great for those who are able to read them.

Here is a link to the website: https://mmis.hkpl.gov.hk/

My grandfather’s niece Ellen Hunter spent the war years in Hong Kong. She was the only child of his brother James Hunter and from what I can tell, she was born there, went to school there and in November of 1944 she died there at age 46. She’s buried at St Michael’s Catholic Cemetery.

Why is any of this significant? Well, from Christmas day of 1941, Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese forces and most British, American and European civilians became captives and were interned at Stanley Camp. So, why was Ellen not among those inmates? Her father, though deceased, was a British school teacher. Her mother, also gone by then, appears to have been British as well.  

Now that I have her death certificate it gives some clarity but also raises new questions. Her name is recorded as “Ellen Hunter, alias Fok Shuk Wah” and there is a side note that she was “a Chinese domiciled in Hong Kong”

The occupation forces did not imprison civilian Chinese in Hong Kong. This leads me to believe that Ellen Hunter must have had a distinct Asian appearance, and/or she must also have had some corresponding paperwork attesting to her being Chinese, either ethnically or by nationality.

*Her death certificate actually has the imprint of her personal Chinese chop.

A further point is the ever present address of 11 Shelley Street that appears with almost every written representation of the Hunter clan in Hong Kong.

I’m sorry if I skip back and forth a bit, but sometimes questions come to mind. One such mystery for me, is why were certain deaths deemed “newsworthy” in Hong Kong. 

Clearly after scanning hundred if newspapers from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, there are only a mere handful of deaths that warranted a “news item”  There were the usual obituaries which were like in the papers of today, short bios, usually in the classified sections, and were most often placed by the families of the deceased. Duplicates sometimes ran in other publications, such as a hometown paper or a place where the departed was well known.

The mentions of the death of “Anne Hunter, alias Kot Choy” were neither of these. As can be seen, they were shown as more of a news item or a notice that may be of interest to those other than family. If this coverage signified some sort of importance or that the deceased was well known in the community, then why is it the only mention of her. In the 83 years of her life, I can find no other news or record of her, other than her death. How can one be so well-covered in death but show nothing of their life?

Who was responsible for these newspaper articles?