History of the Ladies Recreation Club - Hong Kong

Opening Day

China Mail
1 February 1884

"The ladies of Hong Kong are now in the possession of a resort where they can obtain physical recreation of the most health giving and bracing kind. Four spacious lawn tennis courts, each one forming a terrace, have been constructed at no inconsiderable trouble and expense on a pretty site on the face of the hill, quite close to the road to the Peak, and very easy of access ... Among the ladies present was Mrs. March who has been a most prominent and energetic promoter of the scheme" full text

The Hong Kong Dailyx Press
2 February, 1884

"The ladies of Hong Kong deserves much credit for the energy independent spirit they have shown in combining to provide means for their own healthy recreation. The less worthy sex have long had a Recreation Club, a Cricket Ground, and various other means of amusement, and now the ladies have united their efforts for the formation of a Ladies' Recreation Club. The movement had not long been mooted ere it began to take some tangible form, and now the club is an accomplished fact.

1884
Cricket

The first match was on October 31st and November 1st 1884 at Chater Road, and the representatives of the ladies went first to the wicket. Mr. E.J. Coxon [nephew of Lousia Coxon] was the hero of the first innings with 54, which was nearly half the score. However, the L.R.C. did not do so well in the second innings, and eventually the [Hong Kong Cricket Club] H.K.C.C. won the match. ... read more

1885
The "Pavilion"

"A very pretty little Club House where tea was provided"

- Mrs. Kathleen M. Tabor

detail - photo courtesy of Public Records Office (click to zoom)

China Mail - 20 July, 1885

"... on the 26th [of June] the Pavilion of the Ladies' Recreation Club had been entered, and a telescope, some knives, tea spoons, table Cloths, &c., stolen." ... full text

1886
View of the LRC from the Peak

c.1886, shows the LRC's six tennis courts, including two grass tennis courts, four concrete courts and the "Pavilion".

Photo courtesy Wattis Fine Arts

1887
Rates (taxes)

Should the Club be required to pay taxes? Other, gentlemen-controlled Recreation Club didn't. After a discussion in the Legislative Council were reported in the newspaper, with comments by a Mr Lister, the following letter appeared in the China Mail the next day.

Letter to the China Mail, 6 August 1887

Sir, ...

... Mr Lister's statement that 'any speculator, if offered the use of the ground (occupied by the Ladies' Club) for $40 per month, would jump at the offer," is farcical in the extreme. Of course he would jump at the offer, if a lease were granted to him on the usual terms, but with the restrictions and limitations imposed on the present occupants of the ground, the place has no mercantile value whatever, and is useful only as an attractive health resort, the benefit of which to the colony generally is simply incalculable.

... - Yours, RELAXATION ... full text

1887
Trophy

The first known LRC trophy was a Chinese export silver bowl decorated in repousse with eight different panels depicting birds and flowers, dragons and clouds, figures and houses.

Inscribed

L.R.C.
HongKong March 1887
Double Handicap for
Ladies & Gentlemen
Won by
Mrs. Manson & G.H. Potts

Marked: 'WH90' WANG HING.
Size: 2.75" high, 5" wide

Availability:: sold

1889
Rudyard Kipling

The early years were very busy ones indeed for the L.R.C. and it is interesting to get a further glimpse of what things were like from the impressions of Rudyard Kipling. He visited Hongkong, and in "From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches", written 1887-9, has the following:

"Once, before I got away, I climbed to the civil station of Hongkong which overlooks the town. There in sumptuous stone villas built on the edge of the cliff and facing shaded roads, in a wilderness of beautiful flowers and a hushed calm unvexed even by the roar of the traffic below, the residents do their best to imitate the life of an Indian up-country station. They are better off than we are. At the bandstand the ladies dress all in one piece - shoes, gloves and umbrellas come out from England with the dress, and every memsahib knows what that means - but the mechanism of their lives is much the same.

In one point they are superior. The ladies have a club of their very own to which, I believe, men are only allowed to come on sufferance. At a dance there are about 20 men to one lady, and there are practically no spinsters in the island. The inhabitants complain of being cooped in and shut up. They look at the sea below them and long to get away."

Has Hongkong changed so very much? At any rate, seventy years later there is still the roar of traffic - and the L.R.C.