Michael D.Heath-Caldwell M.Arch.

1931

Memoirs of J.A.Heath-Caldwell

I remember a few more things that affected my family’s life when I was aged somewhere between two and four.

J.A.Heath-Caldwell and friend, probably on ship to Hong Kong. 1931

My father was commanding the dockyard and naval base in Hong Kong, and he was the second naval officer in charge, not the one at the top, the next down. He had a incident happened in this naval establishment, in that the purser or the paymaster used the ship’s money to gamble on the Hong Kong dollar,  unfortunately his gamble did not work and he lost money and the result was that there was a court martial and he was sent to prison in Hong Kong.

Foochow after Tiffin at the Consulate. Lampson(?) and Admiral Saa in the front, CHHC at the back on the left.

Another thing that happened there was a small accident to myself and that was, I pulled a heavy bronze incense burner thing which was situated in the middle of a table on a table cloth. I pulled the table cloth towards me and the whole thing fell off the table on to my big toe on my left foot which squashed it.

There was another accident which happened also involving the furniture that we brought back from Hong Kong, and one of these things was a side board with dragons carved on the doors and four fairly sturdy legs, I balanced myself, I stood on the part of the sideboard chest on legs and the whole thing tipped over on to me, and it really shook me but apparently there was no visible damage. So that was another part of the things that happened as a result of our visit to Hong Kong. 

Another thing about going up to Hong Kong, was that my three sisters did not accompany us, they were at their boarding school, called Rooksbury Park School, and they stayed with my grandparents up in Cheshire. And to look after them they hired a nurse, a sort of governess nurse, and she will come into the story later. 

And in Hong Kong the Royal Navy’s job was to stamp down on piracy. A story goes like this: it was about 11.50am and an RN ship saw what it took to be a pirate junk. So a landing party was organized under a Sub-Lieutenant and they jumped on board the junk and with great presence of mind the young Sub piped with his bosun’s call “Hand to Dinner.” And the pirate crew dropped what they were doing and more or less abandoned the junk’s upper deck. After that in minutes the junk was under RN control. The crew were then taken off their ship and the junk was blown up. And somewhere I think I’ve seen a picture, photo, of the junk blowing up. And of course most of the crew at one time or other had served in H.M. Ships so they knew what a dinner call on the bosun’s pipe sounded like. And on the ends of our lanyards as cadets each one of use had a bosun’s call and of course we very soon learned how to pipe. 

And there was the day when my father took my mother and I out in a sailing dinghy and we landed on a sandy island, a small one off Hong Kong Island and my father showed me and my mother turtle tracks in the sand. So he was not pre-occupied 100% of his time with naval duties

Capt. C.H.Heath-Caldwell D.S.O. at Repulse Bay, Hong Kong. J.A.H--C with his Ayah standing on the right. 1931-2

Capt. C.H.Heath-Caldwell D.S.O., at Repulsa Bay, Hong Kong, Maybe Violet Heath-Caldwell standing as she was a keen swimmer. James Heath-Caldwell with his Ayah. 1932

Capt. C.H.Heath-Caldwell on the beach at Repulse by. J.A.HC with Ayah on right. 1931-32

When I went out to Hong Kong with my parents in 1932-34, my three sisters were left behind living in their holidays from school with my grandparents and a governess had been retained to look after them at my grandparents place. When I came back from Hong Kong and set eyes on them I hadn’t realized I had sisters, and they called my father, ‘Our father’ whether this was sort of playing on the first words of the lords prayer. 

Constance, Pat, Diana and Rosamund at Linley Wood. 

(On CHHC becoming a vicar)... partly because while he was out in Hong Kong, a young curate called Henry Bains there talked with my father and my father said he had a religious experience, and that is all he said

And the Bishop of Hong Kong’s Diocese had 93million Chinese souls in it. And one of these was a lady who became the first Anglican Church priest to be ordained. And I did have her name but it was in a book about the Bishop of Hong Kong in my father’s time and I gave the book to my sister Patricia. And Henry Bains was dying of a tropical disease like the one that killed Norman Kirk, the NZ prime minister.