Then & Now | Dead from British naval ship that fought in second opium war commemorated in a Hong Kong cemetery
- Happy Valley memorial honours those who died on board the HMS Calcutta, brought out of mothballs for the second opium war, in four years of Far Eastern service
- Built in Bombay of Burma teak, the vessel, flagship of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, after whom Seymour Road in city’s Mid-Levels is named, carried a crew of 720
Dotted around the colonial ceremony in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, are numerous massive military memorials. These stone monuments date from the earliest years of British rule, and commemorate army units and naval vessels that served in Hong Kong, or elsewhere in China waters, throughout the 19th century.
The size and elaborateness of the monuments vary; much depended on the funds that could be raised, by private subscription, to build them. Military officers of that era were usually of independent financial means, which ensured many were able to donate generously to regimental charities and other associated causes.
The cemetery monument records the names of those members of the ship’s company who died during that period, and were buried either in Hong Kong or at sea. In 1858, on a voyage to Japan, HMS Calcutta became the first Royal Navy vessel of its size to enter the country, at Nagasaki.
After Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, the world entered what became the British century. In long periods of relative peace, as other empires from the Romans to the Americans discovered, being a self-declared global policeman rendered defence costs that were higher, in the long term, than those of conflict itself.