6. A Life Fully Lived - Part 2

The first years of his service in the Royal Marines, which saw him sailing the Mediterranean Sea, was followed by what may have been one of, if not the most 'exotic' of deployments, to the China Station in Shanghai. The period of this deployment, February 1926 to May 1928, whilst embarked on HMS DAUNTLESS, saw a China awakening from isolationism and realising its potential as a nation-state in own right and by implication challenging the various colonial powers competing for the lucrative Chinese trading market.

There were at times trouble on the streets, skirmishes with colonial troops and a general awareness of budding Chinese nationalism. This period also saw the occurrence of the Wanhsien Incident (more later) on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Standing on parade at the Shanghai racecourse c1927.

Marine Cross is marked with the arrow. The imposing building with the clock tower was known as the China United Apartments, to the left is the unfinished YMCA residential building for foreigners, on the Bubbling Well Road, Shanghai. 

The China United Apartments on Bubbling Well Road, Shanghai 1920's.

The arrows and inscriptions were put there by me and used as aids to identify the previous picture.

Reference:-
*Virtual Shanghai*

The following photo is rare in the fact that it is not a postcard (which makes it unique really) and that it shows two vessels together of historical significance. The photograph can also be precisely placed on the Huangpu river which flows through Shanghai, a tributary of the mighty Yangtze. The photo shows HMS DAUNTLESS with the trader SS KIAWO, the latter being central to the uprisings and skirmishes on the upper Yangtze in the late 1920's.

Reference:-
*Wanhsien Incident*.

HMS Dauntless & SS Kiawo on the Huangpu river, Shanghai 1927.

Addendum

The above picture has great significance to this Blog, in that Lt. Cross was embarked on the Dauntless during the Wanhsien and various other incidents, in colonial China during the late 1920's. To have a photograph of the Kiawo alongside, obviously repaired and spruced up after her travails on the upper Yangtze during 1926, is significant from a historical perspective.

The original non-edited picture shows the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation building to the left of the Dauntless' bow, which identifies the location of this picture to be The Bund on the Huangpu river, in central Shanghai.

A 22 year old Royal Marine witnessing world changing events, not that he realised it at the time, and here we are almost 100 years later putting picture(s) and events together, long after this sea-soldier had passed on.

I call it Walking in the Footsteps of History.

The collection of photographs and postcards in the album of Lt. Cross indicates a keen interest in his surroundings and experiences during his time spent in Shanghai. Pictures of warships, colonial style buildings, damage to property during trouble on the streets, to name the more numerous, are many.

View from where HMS Dauntless was moored, showing the central Bund area on the Huangpu river, Shanghai. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation building on the right with Fuzhou Street between the two.

The upper (northern) part of the Bund c1927. HMS Dauntless was moored further to the left of this picture.

The following two pictures must also be indicative of where his RM (Royal Marine) service and duties, whilst deployed in eastern China, took him. My reason for saying so is that why would a 22 year old young man otherwise be in possession of them? It must have been a place he often saw, perhaps even billeted nearby as part of a Marine detachment, tasked with guarding the building during the many and various trouble spots all along the Yangtze river in the late 1920's. The pictures show the Jianghanguan (Hankow) Customs House, Wuhan, on the upper Yangtze.

Jianghanguan (Hankow) Customs House, Wuhan, on the upper Yangtze river. (Photo)

Jianghanguan (Hankow) Customs House, Wuhan, China. (Postcard c1927)

Below is a Google Earth view of the above picture, the yellow pin denoting the angle from where the above picture was taken. Amazingly the former Customs House building is still there and is a listed historical and cultural site protected at national level.

Reference:-
*Jianghanguan Building, Wuhan, Hubei province*

Google Earth view dated 3/2/2017; Jianghan (Hankow) district, Wuhan, Hubei province.

Once again walking in the footsteps of history, with a c1927 photograph showing the river view of the former Customs House and a postcard from the same period, and then a 2017 Google Earth view - history and technology marching side by side!

Some pointers to events in China during the late 1920's:-

• Britain, by her primacy in trade, appeared to locals the most evil of the 'foreign devils' and violent anti-British feelings were easily aroused.
• Detachments of Royal Marines were drawn from the China Station's larger ships and posted to the various concessions (trading posts) up and down the Yangtze.
• Sandbag protection (Sangars) for key points (like the Customs House above) were manned by small detachments of Royal Marines.
• During one major skirmish between British and communist backed Chinese forces, who tried to seize British owned trading steamers on the Yangtze, a few British servicemen were killed or wounded. This led to severe reprisals by the British "to put these bloody Chinks in their place". This was the quintessential gunboat diplomacy of the time. (Source: No Foreign Bones In China)
• These events and occurrences obviously reached the hallowed portals of Whitehall and were discussed in the British Parliament, as can be seen from official records.

Reference:-

*Hansard - British Parliament*