The picture on my header was one I found in a box of old photos. I originally thought it was two pictures as it had been folded many times and had separated along the fold line. The original measures 2 1/2 inches by 7 inches and initially didn’t interest me. It was only after I taped it back together and then scanned it, that I was able to zoom in for a closer look. 

The first thing that caught my eye was that little black hat and I recognized the face of the lady wearing it. Then looking closer, I found my mother and her sister sitting along the edge of the canal and standing behind them, my grandmother. You may wonder how I can tell in a photo so small? Well, I’ve scanned, screened and magnified pictures of everyone so many times, that I can spot the smallest facial features and even body language. I can usually see it no matter the age. Some things just don’t change; not even from 8 to 80.

The next thing I looked for was the location. It seemed to be some sort of swimming meet as there were a couple of large format cameras on tripods viewable in the crowd. Also the photo itself was a very wide angle and obviously taken by a professional. 

I turned to the University of Bristol. Robert Bickers Collection and after screening many hundreds of photos, I came across two insets that matched. The location is Kuling, near Lushan. It was a popular spot for Europeans to get away from the hussle and bussle of the cities.

The insets show the extended wall platforms and also the waterfall and the footbridge in the far background.

A link to University of Bristol.

This picture is of my family at an unknown location in China. They moved from Hong Kong to Shanghai about 1919, so my mother would have been about 8 years old. Looking at my mother, she could be 8 or she could be 7. It’s impossible to tell. There’s also no clues in the geographic surroundings.

My mother is the girl on the right with a white vest and black hat, next to the tall Chinese man. Her sister is the next to her in a dark dress, white hat, and holding some flowers. My grandmother is behind her in a light colored dress and my grandfather Tobias Hunter, is man standing at the left rear. 

I’ve studied this photo many times and of course I recognize that appear in other pictures. I’ve looked at small details like the man is holding what looks like keys. Maybe he was a driver or chauffeur. The lady in the rear to the left of my grandmother is definitely looking at him. Finally, the ladies on the left and in particular, the one second from left in the dark hat with a white center stripe or feather. It’s her hat that is my tiny clue to the feature photo on this blog.

While scanning through old newspapers on-line and searching “Tobias Hunter” I came across dozens of ads for rentals and real estate for sale. My grandfather had left Jardine Matheson and gone out on his own in Kowloon as an estate agent. 

One ad stood out and I initially thought it was a mistake, as the heading came up as “Silver Markets” I opened the page and a read down to the bottom. There it was, the day’s Silver prices, but off to the right was a small notice. It wasn’t very clear but my grandfather’s name was there. More importantly, was the other familiar name, Kot Choy and the addresses 11 Shelley Street, Hong Kong and 301 Amherst Road, Shanghai. From what appeared, Kot Choy and Anne Hunter were the same person. Who was Anne Hunter and what was her relationship?

 I soon found a second item, this time in the Hong Kong Daily Press. Both were Feb 20, 1937. They were not really obituaries, but more like news items. This second clipping reveals much more important details. As can be seen, the names and relationships of all the family members is clearly stated. This is my mysterious great grandmother, at least by name and association. But who is she? Where did she come from? Why is she referred to as “G”? Why was she never mentioned my whole life? My mother and her sister were 26 and 25 respectively at the time of her death. Surely they knew their own grandmother. Why was she never spoken of?

Just to recap my family connections to China.

My mother Iris Hunter and her sister Nora Hunter were both born in Kowloon. My mother in 1911 and her sister in 1912. Both are supported by birth records from the Colony of Hong Kong. There were also two other girls born; one in 1910 and the last in 1913. Neither survived their first year.

My grandfather, Tobias Hunter was born in Hong Kong. This I was told by him, as well as being attested to by other family members. To date I have found no documentation but I have no doubt he was born in Asia. In 1909 he married Maud Thomson, one of six sisters who had come to Hong Kong with a Royal Engineers family. Both her parents had succumbed to Malaria in 1901.

My grandfather had two brothers and a sister. The eldest, James was born in 1874. He married ( Emma ) and lived in Hong Kong. He had one child, a daughter ( Ellen ) born in 1899. James died in 1937; his wife preceding him in 1933. Their daughter died in 1944. All died in Hong Kong and are buried there at Happy Valley. There are records of their deaths but nothing of their births.

The second brother, also older by a little more than a year, was George Hunter, born in 1876. Both George and Tobias worked together as young men at Jardine Matheson. 

George married just prior to his brother Tobias, also in 1909 and also to a Maude ( Maude Amelia Hallas ) in Leeds, England. They seemed to have a rather rocky relationship, but had twin boys in 1913. Sadly George and Maude parted ways and the boys were adopted. It was fortunate for the boys as their new parents were Lady Cowley and her husband Sir Arthur Ernest Cowley. Both boys followed military careers, one in the Royal Navy and the other in the RAF. One of these boys had a daughter, who is one of the DNA samples in our Asia connection

The last of the China born Hunters was May Hunter, who was born in 1879. It’s told that her passport showed her place of birth as Foochow.

One last point of interest is that of the second batch of Hunter offspring born in England, to WLH and his wife Eleanor, the son, William Lethbridge Hunter was employed by the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank and he was posted to the Honkew branch. I believe the two sets of Hunters knew of each other and may have been closer than anyone mentioned. This second WLH remained single and produced no children. He passed away in 1933.

My grandfather’s sister May Hunter married in 1903 in Hong Kong to Thomas Cock of Shanghai. The Cock family were from Scotland and came to China after a generation or two in Calcutta, India. Tom Cock was born in Shanghai. His father was born in India and his mother, is anyone’s guess. I believe she was also of Asian descent as I now believe is the case with my own great grandmother. More on this to follow.

On April 15, 1865 the famous American president died. He’d been shot the previous night at the Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC.

I came across this date while researching sailing ships of that era and looking at routes my great grandfather may have taken to China. Coincidentally, he arrived at Foochow on April 16th, 18965, the very day after the assassination of Lincoln. I wondered if as he walked down the ship’s gangway in this foreign land, was there a newspaper hawker shouting, “Extra, extra, read all about it! President Lincoln Assassinated!” Did news travel that fast? 

 WLH was now in Foochow, after months at sea, seeking his fortune in a new world. The record below is of foreign residents at the end of the years but in the case of my great grandfather is also shows his date of arrival. He was 21 years old, a bachelor as far as we can tell and employed by W R Adamson. His father John Hunter had also been involved in the tea business with Binyon’s in Manchester, so William would have likely been well versed in the trade. As a side note, he is listed on the 1861 census in London, as a tea salesman. Although not mentioned, this could have been his first affiliation with Adamsons.

Back in about 2000 when I first began to delve into my family’s past, I had a phone conversation with my aunt in Laguna Beach, California. She was 87 at the time. Out of nowhere she mentioned that their grandfather William Leyland Hunter was buried at Tooting, England!

I’d always assumed from family stories of his life as a tea trader and the China Clippers etc, that he had lived and died in China. My mother and her sister were born in Hong Kong ( Kowloon ) as was their father, Tobias Hunter ( my grandfather )

Surprised, I asked how this came about and while she didn’t elaborate much on the “how” part. she did tell me “when” 

In 1924 my mother and my aunt were sent to boarding school in Bournemouth, England. They were there for four years, after which they returned home to Shanghai, where the family had moved after WW1.

It was during this time in England, either at the beginning or before they went home ( or maybe my GF made a trip to visit somewhere in the middle that I’m unaware of, but I don’t think so )

In any case, he took the girls to see the grave and my aunt told me that he said: He bought and paid for the gravestone himself and it was made of granite and he had done it as a sign of respect to his father. *Note: Eleanor is the wife he married in England, the mother of the final two children. She died in 1924 and it appears that her name was added quite some time after the original, which itself was not erected at the time of death, as my GF would have been just 17 then. At this point I don’t have a date for when the stone was put in place.

Internet capabilities were far more difficult back then.  There was no Google so I relied on AOL chat rooms and member lists to try finding info about where this grave might be. As it turns out there is only one actual “graveyard” in Tooting and it’s at St Nicholas Church. In 2001 I found a lady who very kindly went to have a look. She found the stone lying on it’s side, covered with brambles and weeds. Obviously with help, she somehow managed to right it, clean it up and sent me several photos, two of which I’ll add to this post.

She wrote me that as a reward for her work, she was treated to a rare view of a fox who had taken notice of her efforts and come out  to give his approval.

William Leyland Hunter was born June 3rd, 1844 at St Anne’s Square, Manchester. His father was John Hunter and his mother Alice Southam. John Hunter was in the tea business with “Binyon’s” at St Anne’s Square in Manchester. John Hunter later had a more formal affiliation when it became “Binyon’s and Hunter” for a short period of time. That seems to have not worked out.

On the 1851 Census of England, William Leyland Hunter is listed as aged 6, and along with his mother Alice Hunter and a servant Ellen Entwhistle, was domiciled at the Legh Arms Hotel at Newton in Mackerfield, which looks to be about half-way between Manchester and Liverpool.

It’s interesting that his name is spelled out in full on the census form, seeming to indicate he was given some status, if only by his mother, at such an early age.

I received the following e-mail through Ancestry

In 2014 I received an answer to a post I’d put on an Ancestry.com/UK message board.

Ancestry.com/UK Message Board Post, April 2014.The gist of the exchanged messages is as follows:

Subject: Re: William Leyland /Hunter

Author: Antony Marr

Date: 01 April 2014

Classification: Biography

Surnames: COUTES, HUNTER, JOHNSTON

 These posts are getting a bit confusing, but I think your family is pretty straightforward:

 William Leyland HUNTER is baptised in Manchester 15/12/1844 – son of John Hunter a tea merchant and his wife was Alice.  John HUNTER married Alice SOUTHAM in 1839.

 He had at least 2 brothers – Edmund (sometimes recorded as Edward) Southam HUNTER (1842) and Samuel Southam HUNTER (1848)

 The family don’t seem to be on UK census after that, so maybe they are in Hong Kong.

 Tobias Hunter is born in Hong Kong on 18th Sept 1877 – on his death record in British Columbia in 1970, his parents are named as William Leyland HUNTER , a tea dealer born in Manchester and Catherine COUTES, born in Hong Kong.

 There is no marriage record for William and Catherine in the UK, so they may have married in Hong Kong.

 William Leyland HUNTER married Ellen JOHNSTON in London (Holborn) in 1887. Ellen/Helen & Eleanor are often interchangeable names. Ellen was born about 1855 in Carlisle. The marriage certificate will say whether William describes himself as a widower (if he claimed Catherine had died).

 2 more children arrive – Evelyn Ellen HUNTER in 1887, and William Lethbridge HUNTER in 1891.

 In the 1891 census the family (William, Ellen & 2 young children) are living in Bloomsbury, London – he is described as a China Dealer. There is no sign of his other children (did he leave them and their mother? behind in Hong Kong)

 In 1893 William Leyland HUNTER goes bankrupt – with debts of £7,306 and assets of only £40. He is described (in The Times newspaper) as a commission merchant dealing in tea.

 William Leyland HUNTER dies on 8th March 1894 in Tooting , London and leaves his wife Ellen £18.

 In 1901 & 1911 Ellen HUNTER, a widow, is a lodging/boarding house keeper in Bloomsbury. She dies in 1924, and her death is registered (in the name Eleanor) by her son William Lethbridge HUNTER.

 I hope that helps sort things out.

 Antony

 * Note: Up until recently the only mention of a mother to Tobias, George, May and James is on that death certificate of Tobias in 1970. The information was given by his daughter (my mother) Iris Maud Beesley (nee Hunter) the name given under mother of deceased’s maiden name, was: CATHERINE COUTES

Other spellings were also tried but all searches under this name have proven unsuccessful.