We found ourselves in Pofulam surrounded by refugees from China when we arrived in Hong Kong. There were shanties all around and we helped many of them because in those days there were no charities organised. Eventually they were all moved away to Rennie's Mill. They were followed by lepers who were packed off over the border by the Chinese government. Eventually, permission was given for them to go to Hei Ling Chau (the former leper colony). There was virtually no welfare and we felt helpless with all this poverty around us.
In 1960, I was asked to become the director of the Hong Kong Red Cross. I stayed for five years. We built a residential school in Kwun Tong, originally for abandoned and disabled children. But we couldn't take them all, especially if they were too handicapped. We wanted those who could benefit from the education, and the kind of care we were offering. It opened in 1962 and took about 60 children. It's still going, and is now called the Princess Alexandra Red Cross School. It was the first special school in Hong Kong.
The Marden Foundation was a joint effort between my husband, myself and the whole family. When we started, we wanted to build these pre-vocational schools because we thought schooling in Hong Kong was too rigid and that there should be an alternative. We thought we would build just one school, but the government said it would build the schools and we could upgrade them. That was when Sir Murray MacLehose was governor and he was extremely helpful. We got the three pre-vocational schools up and running. The first one was in Tuen Mun. It's still going. The other two are in Sha Tin and Chai Wan.
When the schools were finished, we decided we would just have a foundation that gave out money every year to different causes. We meet twice a year. All the family are members of the board of governors. It's a simple organisation with no overheads. Our number one criteria is that we help Hong Kong people.
We offer scholarships for people who would never get an opportunity otherwise, such as helping a lot of deaf people to go to university - small things like that.
I wan born in Shanghai in 1926, and was schooled in Switzerland and England. John was seven years older and was taken to Shanghai when he was a year old. Our families were next-door neighbours in Shanghai, but we didn't know each other there, because when I was growing up he was away at boarding school and when he came back I was away at school John and I met by chance in England. It was sheer fate. During the war, Mrs Marden wrote to my mother and asked if I would like to come and stay at their home in London. She then asked me to stay on for the weekend. John was with the Royal Horse Artillery, and got some unexpected leave and he suddenly appeared. If I hadn't stayed the extra weekend, I wouldn't have met him.