Hong Kong

The Opium Trade

China Controls Trade

A Diabolical Scheme

The Opium Wars

First Opium War

Second Opium War

After the Treaty of Nanjing, the opium trade flourished.

Third Opium War

From 1910 until the devastating earthquake of 1923, the Bruce family maintained two households, one in Yokohama, Japan where Sydney Bruce worked as an accountant and one in South London, England where the children took their schooling. For most of their childhood the five children had only infrequent visits with their father and even their mother, as they generally boarded out.

The Canton Trade System

From 1910 until the devastating earthquake of 1923, the Bruce family maintained two households, one in Yokohama, Japan where Sydney Bruce worked as an accountant and one in South London, England where the children took their schooling. For most of their childhood the five children had only infrequent visits with their father and even their mother, as they generally boarded out.

Hong Kong: A Spoil of War

From 1910 until the devastating earthquake of 1923, the Bruce family maintained two households, one in Yokohama, Japan where Sydney Bruce worked as an accountant and one in South London, England where the children took their schooling. For most of their childhood the five children had only infrequent visits with their father and even their mother, as they generally boarded out.

Scenes of Early Hong Kong

From 1910 until the devastating earthquake of 1923, the Bruce family maintained two households, one in Yokohama, Japan where Sydney Bruce worked as an accountant and one in South London, England where the children took their schooling. For most of their childhood the five children had only infrequent visits with their father and even their mother, as they generally boarded out.

Accounts of Early Hong Kong

From 1910 until the devastating earthquake of 1923, the Bruce family maintained two households, one in Yokohama, Japan where Sydney Bruce worked as an accountant and one in South London, England where the children took their schooling. For most of their childhood the five children had only infrequent visits with their father and even their mother, as they generally boarded out.

Daniel RF Caldwell

From 1910 until the devastating earthquake of 1923, the Bruce family maintained two households, one in Yokohama, Japan where Sydney Bruce worked as an accountant and one in South London, England where the children took their schooling. For most of their childhood the five children had only infrequent visits with their father and even their mother, as they generally boarded out.

Piracy, Daniel & the British Navy

From 1910 until the devastating earthquake of 1923, the Bruce family maintained two households, one in Yokohama, Japan where Sydney Bruce worked as an accountant and one in South London, England where the children took their schooling. For most of their childhood the five children had only infrequent visits with their father and even their mother, as they generally boarded out.

Daniel RF’s Family

From 1910 until the devastating earthquake of 1923, the Bruce family maintained two households, one in Yokohama, Japan where Sydney Bruce worked as an accountant and one in South London, England where the children took their schooling. For most of their childhood the five children had only infrequent visits with their father and even their mother, as they generally boarded out.

The Chinese Connection: Our Adopted Family

Daniel Edmund Caldwell

From 1910 until the devastating earthquake of 1923, the Bruce family maintained two households, one in Yokohama, Japan where Sydney Bruce worked as an accountant and one in South London, England where the children took their schooling. For most of their childhood the five children had only infrequent visits with their father and even their mother, as they generally boarded out.

Family Life

Letters 

Transcripts of Letters

20 Nov 1889
Daniel E to children

Explosion On The Yotsai

Disappeared

By the late 1880s Daniel seemed to be really struggling with his law practice, not from a lack of work for he must have had all the clients he could handle. Indeed, Daniel’s decision to take on a partner suggests he was becoming overwhelmed with the work. Worse, his letters to his family suggest he hated his job with its never-ending shuffling of paper and long waits in court.

Reading between the lines of his letters suggests two more things about Daniel: 1. he was under financial pressure with the expense of keeping up two households — one in Hong kong, the other in England. To lessen the burden, he moved to a a smaller house in Hong Kong  2. I believe Daniel was lonely. The only letters we have from Daniel are those he wrote to his children. They are filled with affection and genuine caring for the children and leave us with the unmistakable impression that he misses them terribly. What we do not know is the nature of Daniel’s relationship with his wife, Mary. We have no letters from her nor any to her. Could it be that the extensive time and distance between them led to a parting of the ways?

The bottom line for me is that Daniel was very probably lonely, perhaps desperately lonely. Perhaps as well, he found himself boxed into a life he deplored. His children were young and required support and a good education. And to leave Hong Kong and start all over again building a practice in London was financially impossible and emotionally un-do-able. If his debts worsened to the point of insolvency, he faced debtor’s prison, shame and a loss of professional credibility from which he would never recover. Unlike his father, who handily survived debtor’s prison because he was so essential to the running of the colony, Daniel Edmund was replaceable. 

On May 30, 1891, Daniel was due in court on a routine matter. He never showed. In fact, he was never seen again, not in Hong Kong or anywhere else. Daniel simply disappeared. Regrettably, the trust funds for the law practice disappeared with him. Did Daniel borrow money from the wrong people? Did he start a new life in the bowels of China? Did he make his way to Britain and live in the shadows near his family. Did my great grandfather, Daniel Edmund Caldwell, commit suicide?

 Wilkinson & Grist

Rose Mary Caldwell (See also The Bruces)

From 1910 until the devastating earthquake of 1923, the Bruce family maintained two households, one in Yokohama, Japan where Sydney Bruce worked as an accountant and one in South London, England where the children took their schooling. For most of their childhood the five children had only infrequent visits with their father and even their mother, as they generally boarded out.

Francis Williams Mitchell, PMG, JP

Documents

Family Life

Henry Charles Caldwell