This luggage tag from the Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels advertises the group’s three hotels in the 1950s.
The Peninsula Hotel (b. 1928) was the first of the group’s hotels. After the Japanese invaded Hong Kong on Christmas Day, 1941, the Kempeitei used the hotel as a temporary headquarters before moving into Government House. They renamed the Peninsula the Toa (East Asia) Hotel when it opened again for business in 1942 (the name changed back to the Peninsula after the Japanese lost the war). It stands tall and proud today, with a high-rise annex added about twenty years ago.
Next came the Peak Hotel (1873-1936), which they acquired sometime before it closed. So when this label was printed in the 50s, the Peak was long gone.
The Repulse Bay, built in 1920 and immortalized in the film Love is a Many Splendored Thing, met with an unfortunate end in 1982. Sadly, after the building had been demolished to make way for new housing developments during a real estate boom, the HSH group realized what a gem they’d lost. They built a replica building, but it’ll never be the same as the Repulse Bay Hotel (it houses shops and a restaurant today).
And as for the Hong Kong Hotel, it’s gone, too.
Trying to research about my Father in Law Percy Suckling who managed one of the Hong Kong &
Shanghai Hotels over looking the harbour in Shanghai.
He was taken from his desk and made prisoner of war by Japanese.
He had been many years in Shanghai and at that time was with his wife and child.
Any history is welcome.