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Just doing their job: the hidden meteorologists of colonial Hong Kong c.1883–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2021

Fiona Williamson
Fiona Williamson*
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, Singapore
*
*Corresponding author: Fiona Williamson, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article investigates the contribution made by indigenous employees to the work of the Hong Kong Observatory from its inception and into the early twentieth century. As has so often been the case in Western histories of science, the significance of indigenous workers and of women in the Hong Kong Observatory has been obscured by the stories of the government officials and observatory director(s). Yet without the employees, the service could not have functioned or grown. While the glimpses of their work and lives are fleeting, often only revealed in minor archival references, this article seeks to interrogate these sources to make these workers’ lives visible and to offer an examination of everyday working relationships at this place and point in time. It focuses on three areas. First, an exploration of who these workers were, and the role they played at the observatory. Second, an investigation of their contribution to the nascent science of meteorology. Third, an examination of available evidence – levels of high staff turnover, complaints, instances of foot dragging, or working to rule, as well as the tenacity to continue for years under difficult working conditions – to demonstrate the ability of workers to reject or to negotiate with colonial/patriarchal authority. In profiling their stories, this article will add to the literature examining the lives of scientific workers and their contributions to science, the everyday cultural and social contexts of colonial meteorology, and the role of ordinary men and women in producing meteorological knowledge at this time.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 341 - 359
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of British Society for the History of Science

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References

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25 HKGG, Report for 1884 from the Government Astronomer, pp. 124–5.

26 For Doberck's story see MacKeown, P. Kevin, ‘William Doberck: double star astronomer’, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage (2007) 10, pp. 49–64Google Scholar; MacKeown, op. cit. (23), Chapter 2.

27 Applications for the role of director at Hong Kong Observatory came from Europeans stationed at observatories all over the world, including in India and Mauritius. The full set survive at CUL, RGO 6/154, File 15, Papers 391–420, 1882.

28 HKGG, Vol. XXIX, Government Notification No. 364, 10 November 1883.

29 HKGG, 1 December 1883: Government Notification No. 391. Palmer had proposed $1200 and $900 respectively in 1881. HKGG, 3 September 1881, Report on the Proposal to Establish a Physical Observatory at Hongkong by Major H.S. Palmer, 17 July 1881, p. 810.

30 HKGG, 24 May 1884, p. 434, Government Notification No. 198.

31 Doberck, W., ‘On the meteorology of south-eastern China in 1886’, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (1888) 14(67), pp. 217–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Doberck, op. cit. (31), p. 222. The ensuing discussion of the paper, recorded in the journal, was tepid at best.

33 W. Doberck, Observations of the Hong Kong Observatory in the Year 1888, Hong Kong: Noronha & Co., 1889, pp. 3, 5; HKRS356 1-1-2, 31 August 1887; Director's Annual Report for 1886, p. 1.

34 HKGG, 6 June 1885, Government Notification No. 231, p. 520.

35 HKGG, 27 March 1886, Supplement, p. 233; HKRS356 1-1-2, 31 August 1887, Director's Annual Report for 1886, p. 1.

36 HKGG, 27 March 1886. Supplement, p. 233.

37 Hong Kong Public Records Office (hereafter HKPRO), SP, 1886, letter to the Colonial Secretary from William Doberck, 9 March 1886, and presented to the Legislative Council, 24 March 1886: Application for an Additional Chinese Clerk for the Observatory.

38 HKPRO, Hong Kong Records Series (hereafter HKRS) 356 1-1-2, f. 10, letter from the acting colonial secretary to Doberck, No. 581, 17 April 1886.

39 HKPRO, HKRS356 1-1-2, f. 192, Colonial Secretary's Office to William Doberck, 27 September 1890.

40 HKPRO, HKRS356 1-1-2, 31 August 1887, Director's Annual Report for 1886, p. 1.

41 HKPRO, HKRS356 1-1-2, f. 130, observatory salaries for September 1889.

42 HKPRO, HKRS842 1-2, File 4, f. 41, letter to the Colonial Secretary from Doberck, 14 May 1896.

43 HKGG, 22 May 1886, Government Notification No. 181, p. 449.

44 HKPRO, HKRS356 1-1-2, order respecting Mr Lau-Shau's application to be allowed to receive the full salary of $50 per month, 27 April 1886.

45 HKPRO, HKRS356 1-1-2, observatory salaries for September 1889, f. 130.

46 HKPRO, HKRS356 1-1-2, Order of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government Is Communicated to the Director of the Observatory, 21 May 1886, f. 12; 22 July 1886, f. 15.

47 HKRS356, op. cit. (46), 13 November 1886, f. 22.

48 HKRS356, op. cit. (46), 22 November 1886, f. 24.

49 HKGG, 12 May 1894, Report of the Director of the Observatory for the year 1894, p. 399.

50 CUL, RGO 7/5/A5, assistants, letter to William Christie from E. Walter Maunder, 23 January 1906; letter to William Christie from E. Walter Maunder, 25 May 1907; CUL, RGO 5/7/A5, assistants, comparison between Admiralty Office and scientific votes, 1895–1907; comparison of the votes for the Royal Observatories of Greenwich and the Cape of Good Hope, 1893–1907.

51 In 1927, plans for a new meteorological service proposed annual salaries of (in Straits’ dollars) $1,440 per annum for senior subordinate staff, $540 per annum (average) for ordinary subordinates and $1,000 per annum for a clerk. The National Archives, UK (hereafter TNA), CO273/541, ff. 21–2. Memorandum to proposals for a new meteorological service for Malaya, 14 October 1927. Between 1895 and 1906 Malaya and Hong Kong shared the same currency (British trade dollar/silver standard), but after this the Straits adopted their own dollar worth two shillings and four pence in sterling.

52 HKPRO, HKGR, SP, correspondence respecting increase in salaries of subordinate officers in the civil service of the colony, 3 October 1900, pp. 2–3.

53 HKGG, 22 October 1887, vol. XXXIII, Government Notification No. 437.

54 HKR 842 1-1, File 3, correspondence and papers relating to the Hong Kong Observatory, No. 181, 2 February 1891; HKGG, 6 June 1891, Report of the Director of the Observatory, for the year 1890, p. 258.

55 HKPRO, HKRS 842 1-1, File 3, 1891, f. 6, letter from William Doberck to the acting colonial secretary W.M. Deane, n.d., 1891.

56 CUL, RGO 6/154, File 12, Papers 310–33, Report by J.M. Price, n.d., f. 328v; CUL, RGO 6/154, File 11, Papers 293–311, Report on the Proposal to Establish an Observatory at Hong Kong by Major H.S. Palmer 1881 f. 299.

57 HKGG, 21 December 1889, Government Notification No. 524, p. 984.

58 CUL, RGO 7/160, appointments to observatories, Q5, 25 January 1912; CUL, RGO 5/7/A5, resignation of B.D. Evans. Recommendation Report for H. Acton by The Astronomer Royal, 12 June 1912.

59 HKPRO, BB, Civil Establishments of Hong Kong for the year 1897, p. 50.

60 HKPRO, HKRS356 1-1-2, f. 192b, 27 September 1890.

61 Wan Suit Ngam retired in 1923 after thirty-three years’ service and one promotion, from fourth-grade to third-grade telephonist. HKPRO, Administrative Reports (hereafter AR) 1913, Report of the Royal Observatory for 1913, p. 10; AR Royal Observatory 1923, Appendix F, F17.

62 HKGG, 2 May 1891, Government Notification No. 207. As an aside, on 29 December 1891, Plummer was late to work, citing the arrest of his houseboy and cook on account of attempted murder as the reason for his absence. HKRS842 1/1, File 3, f. 44r, letter from Plummer to Doberck, 29 December 1891. The author has not found any further reference to this incident.

63 Whiting, Paul, ‘The work of John Isaac Plummer at Orwell Park Observatory in the years 1874 to 1890’, Antiquarian Astronomer (2006) 3, pp. 95–100Google Scholar.

64 HKGG, 18 June 1892, Government Notification No. 279, p. 599.

65 HKGG, 8 November 1890, p. 1126, Government Notification No. 464.

66 HKPRO, HKRS 842 1-3, 3 July 1902.

67 HKPRO, HKRS356 1-1-2, government order, CSO, 14 December 1886, f. 30.

68 Director's Annual Report for 1886, 31 August 1887, p. 2.

69 Director's Report, op. cit. (68).

70 HKGG, 6 June 1891, Report of the Director of the Observatory, for the year 1890, p. 258.

71 HKRS842/3, General Correspondence 1898–1902, letter from the Colonial Secretary, 22 July 1898, letter from Doberck, 20 June 1898.

72 HKGG, 2 September 1893, Report of the Director of the Observatory, for the year 1892, p. 818.

73 HKGG, op. cit. (72), p. 818; HKGG, 12 May 1894, p. 399, Report of the Director of the Observatory for 1893, 26 April 1894.

74 HKPRO, HKRS356 1-1-2. Doberck to the Colonial Secretary's Office, 15 June 1888; HKGG, 16 June 1888, p. 611, Government Notification No. 267.

75 China Mail, 18 June 1888, p. 2.

76 In the intervening two years, Lam had worked as usher at the magistrate's court: HKPRO, HKRS356 1-1-2, government order, CSO, 14 December 1886, f. 30; HKGG, 8 November 1890, p. 1126, Government Notification No. 464.

77 Seth, Suman, ‘Putting knowledge in its place: science, colonialism, and the postcolonial’, Postcolonial Studies (2009) 12(4), pp. 373–88, 374CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Prakash, Gyan, Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999, p. 48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Prakash, ‘The impossibility of subaltern history’, Nepantla: Views from the South (2000) 1(2), pp. 287–94, 288.

78 CUL, RGO15.57, f. 208, letter from the Madras astronomer William Jacob to the Cape astronomer Thomas Maclear, 21 January 1850. The author extends thanks to Prof. Simon Schaffer for this reference.

79 Maxwell was recently retired from the position of chief secretary to the government of the Federated Malay States (FMS). Robinson was also recently retired as director of museums (FMS), under which the meteorological department had been officially housed. Robinson himself was a keen amateur meteorologist and hearty supporter of improving the service for Malaya.

80 TNA, CO273/541, ff. 4–5, Sir George Maxwell and Herbert C. Robinson, A Meteorological Department for Malaya, 14 August 1927.

81 For more on this in the Hong Kong context see Williamson, F., ‘Uncertain skies: “forecasting” typhoons in Hong Kong c.1874–1906’, Quaderni Storici (2017) 52(3), pp. 777–802Google Scholar.

82 Anon., The Calamitous Typhoon at Hong Kong, 18 September 1906, Hong Kong, 1906, at http://ebook.lib.hku.hk/HKG/B36228084.pdf.

83 The most severe typhoons were in 1906, 1923, 1937, Super Typhoon Wanda (1962), Typhoon Ruby (1964), Typhoon Rose (1971), Typhoon Ellen (1983) and Super Typhoon Hope (1979). Of these, four had particularly severe storm surges – 1906, 1937, 1962 and 1979. See Michael J. Jones, A History of Hong Kong Typhoons: From 1874, Hong Kong: PPP Company Limited, 2017; H.Y. Mok, Wing Hong Lui, Dick Shum Lau and Wang Chun Woo, ‘Reconstruction of track and simulation of storm surge associated with the calamitous typhoon affected the Pearl River Estuary in September 1874’, Climate of the Past (2020) 16(1), pp. 51–4, 2.

84 Pui-Yin, Ho, Weathering the Storm: Hong Kong Observatory and Social Development, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004, pp. 74, 76Google Scholar

85 Sir Henry S. Berkeley, Kt, KC; Lieut. H. Butterworth, R.N.; A.B. Scottowe, Esq., Superintendent, Eastern Extension Telegraph Co.; Captain A. Sommerville, Master, SS. Tean. HKGG, supplement, 22 March 1907, Report of the Committee appointed to enquire whether earlier warning of the typhoon of 18 September 1906, could have been given to shipping.

86 Berkeley, op. cit. (85), pp. 56–7.

87 Berkeley, op. cit. (85), p. 63.

88 Gyan Prakash, ‘Science “gone native” in colonial India’, Representations (1992) 40, pp. 153–78, 172. Kapil Raj, op. cit. (10), pp. 8–9, however, has discussed the importance of local contexts in the production of scientific knowledge, even if this has been obscured in the past by dominant narratives.

89 Lawrence Gibbs, ‘The Hongkong typhoon, September 18, 1906’, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (1908) 34(148), pp. 293–9, 293.

90 The voluminous correspondence can be viewed at HKPRO, HKRS356 1-2-1 1903–7; 1-3 1902–12; 1-2-2 1906–16.

91 HKPRO, HKRS356 1-2-2, unfol., letter from director of the Royal Observatory Hong Kong to the Hon. Secretary for Chinese Affairs (SCA), 22 June 1917.

92 David W. Chambers and Richard Gillespie, ‘Locality in the history of science: colonial science, technoscience, and indigenous knowledge’, Osiris (2000) 15, pp. 221–40, 221–2. For this sense of the local see Vincanne Adams and Stacey Leigh Pigg (eds.), Sex in Development: Science, Sexuality, and Morality in Global Perspective, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005, p. 11.

93 Doberck was no stranger to working with women. Anna had, of course, worked with him at Mackree, but so too had his housekeeper, both involved in meteorology and astronomy. After he retired, his wife worked with him at a miniature observatory named ‘Kowloon’ that he had installed at his home in Sutton, England: MacKeown, op. cit. (23), p. 227; MacKeown, op. cit. (26), p. 58.

94 Sobel, Dava, The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars, London: Penguin, 2016Google Scholar; Fritsche, Hermann, ‘Climate of eastern Asia’, Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1878) 12, pp. 125–335, 188Google Scholar.

95 For instance, Willamina Fleming was offered a role at Harvard College Observatory by her domestic employer Edward Charles Pickering, director of that establishment. For more see Sobel, op. cit. (94). Elizabeth Buckley worked at Kew Observatory with her father Robert, photographing and analysing sunspots. Macdonald, Kew Observatory, op. cit. (8).

96 MacKeown, op. cit. (23), pp. 130–2. MacKeown notes that there was some controversy over whether she held a degree or not, suggesting that, as a woman educated in the late nineteenth century, she had probably sat for the degree but could not receive the award. This experience could mirror that of other female scientists like Annie Maunder.

97 Michelle McKeown, Aaron P. Potito and Kieran B. Hickey, ‘The long-term temperature record from Mackree Observatory, County Sligo, from 1842–2011’, Irish Geography, October 2013, pp. 1–26, 5–6.

98 CUL, RGO 7/161 Q5, 1, correspondence of Hong Kong Observatory, 1891–9, letter from William Doberck to William Christie, 23 December 1891. William Ferrel and H. Mohn were renowned for their research on cyclonic winds during the nineteenth century.

99 Royal Observatory Greenwich: Graham Dolan, ‘Christie's “lady computers”: the astrographic pioneers of Greenwich’ (2014), at www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=1280, accessed 17 April 2020.

100 CUL, RGO 7/161 Q5, 1, correspondence of Hong Kong Observatory, 1891–9, letter from William Doberck to William Christie, 23 December 1891.

101 MacKeown, op. cit. (23), pp. 130–2.

102 She only lived on site for the first few years of her employment, as the Colonial Office later refused her request for rooms there. HKRS 842/3, letter from Colonial Secretary Stewart Lockhart to the director, HKO, 5 February 1898. The Ladies Directory for Hong Kong records her address as the observatory in the 1890s but by 1906 she has moved to East Road, Kowloon. The 1899 directory has been transcribed and added to the Gwulo.com website at https://gwulo.com/ladies-directory-1899. For 1906 see Directory and Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malaya States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, The Philippines, &c., Hong Kong Daily Press Office, 1906, p. 971.

103 HKPRO, HKRS8421/1, General Correspondence 1891–4, letter from the Colonial Secretary to William Doberck, 31 March 1892.

104 CUL, RGO6.152, f. 192. Pogson earnt a wage ‘equal to a coachman or cook’ of 150 rupees a month.

105 HKGG, 18 March 1904, Report of the Acting Director of the Observatory for 1903, 26 January 1904, p. 409.

106 Starbuck, L., A Brief General History of the Royal Observatory, Hong Kong: Government Printer, 1951, p. 18Google Scholar.

107 HKPRO, HKRS842 1-3, General Correspondence, 1898–1902, letter from Anna Doberck to the Colonial Secretary, 1 July 1902.

108 HKRS842, op. cit. (107).

109 HKRS842, op. cit. (107).

110 Isis Pogson became meteorological reporter to the Madras government in 1881. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Pogson, Norman Robert (1829–91) (23 September 2004), at https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/22438.

111 HKPRO, HKRS842 1-1, 1891–4, William Doberck's proposal for cover during his absence, Letter 93, 1 November 1892; Letter 127, 1894; HKPRO, HKRS842 1-3, General Correspondence, 1898–1902, letter from Anna Doberck to the Colonial Secretary, 1 July 1902; MacKeown, op. cit. (23), p. 208.

112 HKPRO, HKRS842 1-3, General Correspondence, 1898–1902, letter from Anna Doberck to the Colonial Secretary, 1 July 1902.

113 MacKeown, op. cit. (23), p. 131.

114 HKGG, 13 September 1907, Government Notification No. 606, p. 1158; BB 1934, p. 4, Pensions Payable out of the Revenue of the Colony, 1934.

115 HKPRO, BB, Civil Establishments of Hong Kong for the year 1934, p. 4.

116 Elizabeth Johnson was hired as office assistant and translator in 1932. Two years later, Mary Lockhart Smith joined her in a similar role. HKPRO, BB, Civil Establishments of Hong Kong for the year 1932, p. 121; 1934, p. 66.

117 Elaine Koo joined Hong Kong Observatory as a scientific officer in 1975. She became assistant director in 1993. See www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/news/2003/pre0521e.htm.

118 Shapin, op. cit. (14), p. 561.