History of the Ladies Recreation Club - Hong Kong

"The Ladies' Recreation Club have several prettily laid out tennis courts and a Pavilion in their grounds on the Peak Road, just above the Service Reservoir.

Directory and Chronicle for China ... 1894

1890
Officers of the Club

Though the Club's own documents were lost during WWII, we have the good fortune, starting in 1890, of knowing the names of many of the LRC's officers from this rather precisely named, annual publication :

The Directory & Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, &c: with which are incorporated "The China directory" and "The Hongkong directory and Hong list for the Far East"

Officers of the Ladies Recreation Club

Year	President	Secretary	Treasurer	Committee
1890	Mrs Noble	Mrs. Hirst	Mrs. Vernon
1891	Mrs Harman	Mrs. Hirst	Mrs. Vernon	Mrs Hartigan, Dr. William Hartigan Mrs Tomes, Mrs. W.H.Forbes, Mrs Just,
1892	Mrs. Barker	Mrs. Hirst	Mrs. Vernon	Mrs Hartigan, Mrs Tomes, Mrs. Travers, Mrs. Layton
1893	Mrs. Barker	Mrs. Hirst	Mrs. Bird
1894	Mrs. Barker	Mrs. Hawkins	Mrs. Vernon
1895	Mrs. Barker	Mrs. Bird	Mrs. Jackson
1896	Mrs. Bird	Mrs. Clement Palmer	Mrs. Francis
1897	Mrs. Bell-irving	Mrs. Clement Palmer	Mrs. Francis
1898	Mrs. Bell-Irving	Mrs. Clement Palmer	Mrs. Saunders
1899	Lady Carrington	Mrs. Saunders	Mrs. Francis
1900	Mrs. Gascoigne	Mrs. A. Turner	Mrs. Francis
1901	Mrs. Gascoigne	Mrs. A. Turner	Mrs. Francis
1902	Mrs. Gascoigne	Mrs. A. Turner	Mrs. Francis
1903	Lady Gascoigne	Mrs. A Turner	Mrs. Saunders
1904	no listing
1905	no microfiche
1906	Lady Gascoigne	Mrs. A Turner	Mrs. Saunders	no officers listed
1907	Lady Gascoigne	Mrs. A Turner	Mrs. Saunders
1908		Lucy Moxon
1909	no microfiche
1910	no listing
1911	no listing

1890
A new lease.

In 1890, [the 1883] lease was surrendered, apparently because of minor alterations to the boundaries of the lot, and a new lease for a slightly different site was issued

second Ladies Recreation Club lease - 1890
Courtesy Hong Kong Public Records Office

Click image to zoom

Internal Government memo
28 April 1890

[please ask] the Surveyor General, which in his opinion would be more for the interests of the public ... to build the road ... at the sacrifice of giving over to the ladies recreation club the piece of land refered to ?

It is evident that the Ladies have an eye to business ...

Reply:

The ladies of the Recreation ground cannot of course be expected to part with a portion of their property without getting some return ...

A changing of the guard at the LRC was initiated by the Government deciding to build a road (later extended and becoming May Road) from [Old] Peak Road to our uphill neighbour - "Macomer" (later called Clovelley). If we compare the map from the 1890 lease with the map from 1889, we see that the top part near Old Peak Road was exchanged for Government land where the paths to the Club met Old Peak Rd at what is now the car park entrance.

Our Uphill neighbour "Macomber" (later named Clovelly)
graphic courtesy of Hong Kong Public Records Office

George Edward Noble - (English) - Chief Manager of Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank replaced Sir Thomas Jackson

Mrs. Frances Marion Bertha (Daisy) Sexton Noble became the Club president.

James Johnstone Keswick - (Scottish) - LegCo member, Jardines, Mathesion & Co, and founder of Hongkong Land replaced F.D. Sassoon

Mrs. Marion Parkes Keswick (Australian)

William Howell Forbes - (American) - Russell & Co. , replaced C.D. Bottomley

Mrs. Dora Delano Forbes (American)

Managed with great care by Ladies

Club officers and committee members began to be listed in the "Chronicle & Directory for China, Corea, Japan ..."

Mrs. Marion Parkes Keswick - an Australian - married JJ Keswick 1884. Her husband became a trustee of the LRC in 1890. To read a bit about her, and her famous father click here

Mrs. Dora Delano Forbes was an American. Her husband also became a trusteee of the Club in 1890. She was 36 when the LRC was established. At age 16 she was engaged to another American, William Howell Forbes of Russell & Co.and at age 20 - in 1867 - married him in Paris after he received his $100,000 "competence". After the wedding the couple returned to Hong Kongand lived in "Rose Hill". on Caine Road between the Catholic Cathedral and the Mosque. Her nephew, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, became President of the United States. To read more of her life, click gere

Mrs. Frances Marion Bertha (Daisy) Sexton Noble - eldest daughter of Major JM Sexton Bombay Staff Corps - married George Edward Noble

Lady Gascoigne - was married to Major General Sir William Gascoigne, the General Officer Commanding Hong Kog Forces 1899-1902.

Dr. William HARTIGAN (who was physician for HSBC and a brother-in-law of Sir Thomas JACKSON) (http://www.thesilverbowl.com/biographies/Noble-Hong-Kong.htm)