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The compound was not used exclusively for public offices. There were domestic spaces for accommodation. Little is known about the few expatriates’ wives and families living in the quarters for married officers. Their life so was private that it has left barely a trace.
How did these women make their homes in a foreign place? How did they fit into the world of power and ambition of their husbands? What were their roles and identities in the public sphere? Could they find mutual support and group identity within their own circles?
Historical narratives have also overlooked Chinese women’s roles in supporting the operations and daily routines of the site. More questions arise such as: who supported the household chores of the officers’ families? Who assisted in breaking and carrying stones for the construction of the site? Who helped in collecting ‘night soil’ from the prison?
“So many particulars. So many questions,” as stated in Bertolt Brecht’s (1898-1956) poem “A Worker Reads History.” This is especially relevant for female workers.
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William Caine was appointed Chief Magistrate in 1841. He was also Hong Kong’s first head of the police and chief jailer. The Irish-born Caine grew up in India, joined the army at a young age, and participated in various military campaigns in Nepal, India, and China.
Caine was commemorated in history by virtue of his power and prominent positions. Yet, his legacy was a deeply problematic one. He was accused of corruption and was notorious for enacting harsh punishments on the Chinese in Hong Kong.
Courtesy of the Public Records Office, Government Records Service
When Caine came to China as part of the expeditionary force in 1840, he left his wife, Mary Ann Caine, and their three sons in India. Mrs. Caine later arrived in Hong Kong in January 1845 and departed for England in July of the same year.
Edward Cree, a naval surgeon, in his unpublished journals, states “Mrs. Caine, wife of the Chief Magistrate, a lively little woman full of fun” and “there were musical parties at Mrs. Caine’s house”.
It seems that she assumed the role of a hostess, organising social functions for her husband’s coterie, which was a segment of Hong Kong’s administrative society. As for her identity and reasons for a brief stay in Hong Kong, these are unknown. She was overshadowed by the public face of her husband.
The Central Police Station provided all necessary facilities for a working police force including offices, living quarters, holding cells, and stables. With the presence of domestic spaces within the compound, history should not forget the lives and experiences of the women and children who resided there.
In the northeast section of the compound, various residential blocks provided quarters for married sergeants, married inspectors, the Deputy Superintendent, as well as the Captain Superintendent of Police.
An unusual feature was the accommodation for married sergeants in the barrack block. The presence of these accommodations indicates that women and families living there must have also had to observe barrack regulations.
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Married Sergeants’ Quarters in the Barrack Block
1862 plans of the Barrack Block show the quarters for married sergeants in the projecting end bays on the east and west. The building was completed in 1864. These drawings are signed by Charles St. George Cleverly, who also designed St. John’s Cathedral and the Government House.
Courtesy of The National Archives of the UK
Phoebe May was the second daughter of Sir Henry May. The family lived in the Central Police Station when Henry May was for some four years (1897-1901) simultaneously Captain Superintendent of Police and Superintendent of Victoria Gaol. He was later the Governor of Hong Kong from 1912 to 1918.
Sir Henry May and his family at the Central Police Station, c. 1899. Courtesy of the family of Phoebe Whitworth, View from the Peak: An Autobiography
“We could see Chinese prisoners exercising in the courtyard. At night we sometimes heard a woman prisoner wailing and were told she was in a strait-jacket. Occasionally Daddy took us with him when he inspected the cells. I can remember how the prisoners stood with their hands up to show that they had nothing in them.”
Phoebe May
“We could see Chinese prisoners exercising in the courtyard. At night we sometimes heard a woman prisoner wailing and were told she was in a strait-jacket. Occasionally Daddy took us with him when he inspected the cells. I can remember how the prisoners stood with their hands up to show that they had nothing in them.”
Phoebe May
Family duties and the domestic care of children likely fell on the house mistresses and their maids due to gender norms and a gendered division of labour. But the public-private dichotomy that marks the separate spheres for men and women is more of an ideal than a reality.
Some expatriate women took advantage of their social statuses and networks to engage in community services in the public sphere, especially in the changing social atmosphere of the 20th century. Influenced by the Votes for Women campaign and Suffragette Movement in the UK, there were increasingly independent minded, highly educated, and socially conscious expatriate women who left a mark on the city’s social development.
Lady Helena May, for example, was involved with establishing the Helena May Institute, a safe and affordable place for visiting working women to stay and socialise.
Another example of the blurring of the public-private dichotomy occurred during World War I when women threw themselves into fundraising to support the war effort.
Other expatriate women who played an active role in society included missionaries’ wives, convent sisters, and working-class women in various professions.
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Women were visible when they ran into trouble with the law with recorded court cases and confinement in the gendered spaces of the prison. The 1823 Gaol Act, in the United Kingdom, stated that female prisoners should be kept separately from male prisoners, as part of the classification system.
Over time, with increasing female admissions and prison overcrowding, accommodation for female inmates had become an ongoing problem.
In Hong Kong, female inmates were housed in a section of the debtors’ prison in the 1850s; in the extended east wing of the radial-plan prison completed in 1862; in a rented house, No. 47 Wyndham Street, in 1885; and back into the main prison in 1896. It was not until 1932 that the first dedicated women’s prison was established in Lai Chi Kok.
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Plans from 1851 showing the proposed female dormitory in the same building of the debtors’ prison.
Courtesy of The National Archives of the UK
Plans from 1851 showing the proposed female dormitory in the same building of the debtors’ prison.
Courtesy of The National Archives of the UK
Prison overcrowding was a constant problem and prompted the redevelopment of Victoria Gaol in 1858. A radial plan based on the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia (1829) and the Pentonville Prison in north London (1842) was proposed. The new structure was completed in 1862.
This architectural plan indicates that the ground floor of the east wing of the radial-plan prison was originally intended for holding female inmates. An octagonal structure nearby was the matron’s quarters.
Courtesy of The National Archives of the UK
Keeping female prisoners required a female supervisor. The matron position opened a gender-based job for women. In 1850, an unnamed female turnkey was, according to records, the first woman that the Hong Kong government employed.
Early matrons were usually the wives of male gaolers. Their origins and social class were most likely humble. The matron ensured strict separation of male officers and prisoners from female inmates, conducted searches, supervised cleanliness and dress, oversaw food distribution, and inspected her prisoners during the night. From 1891 onwards, matrons were assisted by female nurses in providing care for the sick inmates.
Warders and staff of the Victoria Gaol, c. 1905.
Courtesy of the Hong Kong Museum of History
Why Was the Matron Not Photographed?
Reclaiming women’s representation may only be imagined through the voids or marginal spaces surrounding the commemorative images of men. After all, space is perceived in a relational way. The missing representation of the matron reflects how power and gender are related in the professional world.
Imagine a group portrait of the matrons and nurses (or wardresses) who had served at different points of history in the Victoria Gaol. Their names have been recorded in the government’s Blue Books and other related records, yet no images of them exist.
Here are the listings of women working in the prison from 1855 to 1931 (before the move to the new female prison at Lai Chi Kok in 1932). Most of the matrons were Europeans (Portuguese, in particular). There are also Chinese names in the lower ranking nurse and wardress positions.
1855–1931
Mary Goodings
Elizabeth Cox
Rasoul
Anneline
I. A. Carcani
E. F. Remedios
Dos Santos
Mrs. Crutchley
Mrs. Gleeson
Mrs. Mason
Mrs. Payne
Mary Collins
Margaret Nolan
Franco
Filomena Maria Lewis
Joanna Maria Raptis
Mary Bredenberg
Rosa Pereira
Laura Aquino
Leona Assis
Hau Chung
Tam Lin
Ng Nin
J. M. Raptis
Li Yee
Li Lin
Lewis
Joanna Maria Raptis
Collins
Dores
Mary Ermiloff
Beltran
Tamar Ai
Calado
Roza Kock
Helena Maria da Conceicao
Belmira Tangap
Felicia Almario
Etelvina Maria Marcal
Violet Wan
Lam Kit
Keeping female prisoners required a female supervisor. The matron position opened a gender-based job for women. In 1850, an unnamed female turnkey was, according to records, the first woman that the Hong Kong government employed.
Early matrons were usually the wives of male gaolers. Their origins and social class were most likely humble. The matron ensured strict separation of male officers and prisoners from female inmates, conducted searches, supervised cleanliness and dress, oversaw food distribution, and inspected her prisoners during the night. From 1891 onwards, matrons were assisted by female nurses in providing care for the sick inmates.
Warders and staff of the Victoria Gaol, c. 1905. Courtesy of the Hong Kong Museum of History
Why Was the Matron Not Photographed?
Reclaiming women’s representation may only be imagined through the voids or marginal spaces surrounding the commemorative images of men. After all, space is perceived in a relational way. The missing representation of the matron reflects how power and gender are related in the professional world.
Imagine a group portrait of the matrons and nurses (or wardresses) who had served at different points of history in the Victoria Gaol. Their names have been recorded in the government’s Blue Books and other related records, yet no images of them exist.
Here are the listings of women working in the prison from 1855 to 1931 (before the move to the new female prison at Lai Chi Kok in 1932). Most of the matrons were Europeans (Portuguese, in particular). There are also Chinese names in the lower ranking nurse and wardress positions.
1855–1931
Mary Goodings
Elizabeth Cox
Rasoul
Anneline
I. A. Carcani
E. F. Remedios
Dos Santos
Mrs. Crutchley
Mrs. Gleeson
Mrs. Mason
Mrs. Payne
Mary Collins
Margaret Nolan
Franco
Filomena Maria Lewis
Joanna Maria Raptis
Mary Bredenberg
Rosa Pereira
Laura Aquino
Leona Assis
Hau Chung
Tam Lin
Ng Nin
J. M. Raptis
Li Yee
Li Lin
Lewis
Joanna Maria Raptis
Collins
Dores
Mary Ermiloff
Beltran
Tamar Ai
Calado
Roza Kock
Helena Maria da Conceicao
Belmira Tangap
Felicia Almario
Etelvina Maria Marcal
Violet Wan
Lam Kit
1855—1931
Mary Goodings
Elizabeth Cox
Rasoul
Anneline
I. A. Carcani
E. F. Remedios
Dos Santos
Mrs. Crutchley
Mrs. Gleeson
Mrs. Mason
Mrs. Payne
Mary Collins
Margaret Nolan
Franco
Filomena Maria Lewis
Joanna Maria Raptis
Mary Bredenberg
Rosa Pereira
Laura Aquino
Leona Assis
Hau Chung
Tam Lin
Ng Nin
J. M. Raptis
Li Yee
Li Lin
Lewis
Joanna Maria Raptis
Collins
Dores
Mary Ermiloff
Beltran
Tamar Ai
Calado
Roza Kock
Helena Maria da
Conceicao
Belmira Tangap
Felicia Almario
Etelvina Maria Marcal
Violet Wan
Lam Kit