Tuesday 28th January 2014
Danny Howell writes ~Â
Readers of dannyhowell.net will know that just recently I was contacted by Bruce Chan, who lives in Toronto, Canada. Bruce has a family connection with Robert Henry Artindale who lived at East House, East Street, Warminster, during the early years of the 20th century. Bruce had read my article about Robert Artindale from one of my books Yesterday’s Warminster. I did reply to Bruce with some additional details about Robert Artindale. Bruce’s knowledge of Mr. Artinale concerned Mr. Artindale’s time and career in Shanghai, China, between 1871 and 1891. For Bruce and readers of this website I have recently added Marjorie Yeates’ recollections of ‘Life With The Artindales’ from another of my books Remember Warminster Volume One and have since added some photos to that article online here at dannyhowell.net Bruce has now been in touch with me again.Â
Bruce Chan writes ~
Hello Danny,
Thank you very much for your email. I’m delighted to see the nine photos that you have added to the transcript of Marjorie Yeates’ reminiscences. East House, if modest in architectural style, was certainly a large mansion with spacious grounds at the rear. I’m pleased to send you a trimmed-down version of the family history article that I recently completed about Robert Henry Artindale and his connections with my family and other relatives. In doing research on his career in Shanghai, I was quite impressed by the high social status that he had achieved there by his mid-forties. My text may contain more specific details than what your readers may wish to know, but I left them in as evidence about his activities. Feel free to abridge as you see fit for posting on your website.
May I ask a kind favour? I would be very grateful for your permission to quote your posted information about RHA dated Wednesday 15th January, 2014, and also to include the 5 photos of Robert and Mabel and East House in my family history. Of course, I will fully credit you as the source and owner of the materials.Â
With best wishes,
Bruce.
Danny Howell responds ~
Thank you Bruce. Of course you can use the article and the photos in your family history. I am glad you found them of interest. I must thank you too for letting me have your article about Robert Artindale’s time and career in Shanghai. I think, we can say, that apart from Mr. Artindale regularly receiving a crate of tea from China on his return to England, most people in Warminster would have been totally unaware of his ‘previous life’ in China. Your article certainly makes for fascinating reading. I am publishing it here unabridged for the benefit of all dannyhowell.net readers. Thank you so much for letting us share it.
_______
Robert Henry Artindale: His Life and Family in China (by Bruce Chan).Â
Robert Henry Artindale (RHA) was born in 1846 to Robert Artindale and Charlotte Thompson at Green Hill, Habergham Eaves, a civil parish in Burnley, Lancashire. http://www.halstedresearch.org.uk/p153.htm#i15251. RHA was the fourth of seven children. http://www.halstedresearch.org.uk/p17.htm#i1610.Â
He was the only sibling known to have lived in China (Shanghai). When “Shanghai†is mentioned below, the historical context must be borne in mind. After its defeat by British forces in the Opium War, China signed the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. Under the terms of peace, China had to allow Shanghai, as well as four other “Treaty Ports,†to be opened up to British merchants to do business and reside in an area known as the British Concession. Furthermore, British nationals within this area had the right to live under British law and governed their own affairs under the British Consul. It was thus a quasi-colonial enclave created for foreigners outside the Chinese city. Later on, the United States and France also acquired their own Concessions and gained autonomy and treaty privileges. In 1863 the British and American Concessions amalgamated to form the International Settlement, which was administered by the Shanghai Municipal Council. The Council consisted of elected representatives of the foreign land-renters and leading merchants. The French Concession remained separate with its own Council. This unusual arrangement lasted until 1943 when the Treaty privileges were annulled.
RHA must have arrived in Shanghai no later than early 1871, since he took part in a regatta of the Shanghai Rowing Club in May 1871—as reported in the North China Herald—when he would have been around 25 years old. Thereafter, he frequently appeared in the business and general directories of China and in the Herald.
RHA’s first job in 1871/2 was probably as a clerk in Bower, Hanbury & Co. (Kung-ping 公平 in Chinese), a British firm founded by (later, Sir) Thomas Hanbury, 1832-1907, a leading businessman, wealthy property owner and philanthropist in Shanghai.
From 1877 to 1890, RHA was employed by Iveson & Co., which was founded by Egbert Iveson, a former employee at Bower & Hanbury. Known in Chinese also as Kung Ping å…¬å¹³çµ²å» , the company was engaged in silk filature and employed 350 workers in 1882.
During his latter years in Shanghai, RHA was involved in a number of civil lawsuits of a commercial nature, either as witness, plaintiff or defendant. From a number of these cases, it is evident that besides his employment income, RHA had amassed additional equity through shrewd investments in real estate and buildings that he subsequently sold for profit, and through rents he collected therefrom. For example, In “Wong Vok-tai v. R.H. Artindale†tried at the Civil Summary Court (NCH, 17 May, 5 June and 19 July, 1883), RHA testified that he had collected rent from many tenants on 18 mou of land (about 22,000 sq.ft.) owned by Iveson & Co. In another case, “Wong Chay-chee v. R.H. Artindale†heard at Her Britannic Majesty’s Supreme Court on 6 November, 1883, the plaintiff was a banker and merchant who had leased premises on two land lots owned by the defendant. His bank had failed, he had defaulted on rental payment and was then thrown in jail for owing debts. RHA considered the lease annulled and repossessed the property but Wong wanted the court to grant him relief and reinstatement of the lease based on refinancing his mortgage. The deposition RHA submitted as testimony, due to his absence, besides revealing that he had a Chinese compradore in his service, shows how adept and tough-minded he was dealing with finance, insurance, real estate, mortgages, etc. (NCH, 7 Nov. 1883, p. 536).
Besides business and litigation, RHA was very active in local politics and prominent in Shanghai society. In 1878-79, he was a member of the Shanghai Municipal Council, as well as a member of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps (a militia defence unit manned by Europeans). For three years, he belonged to the Ratepayers of the International Settlement. In January 1881, RHA was elected by a large number of votes to sit as a foreign member of the Municipal Council in the French Concession. All these activities placed RHA squarely in the upper crust of Shanghai society.
In addition to his business and political activities, RHA led a busy social life. Soon after arriving in the city, he joined the Shanghai Rowing Club; in May 1871 he placed second in the four-oared race, and in November he was the coxswain of the No. 3 boat in the one mile Club Fours race. Fortuitously, one of his rowers was A.R. Margary, the British diplomat. While on an overland expedition in 1875, he and his personal staff were murdered by Chinese, sparking a serious diplomatic crisis known as the “Margary Affairâ€â€”which led to the Chefoo Convention between China and Britain. Continuing with the sporting theme, RHA was equally active in the Yacht Club, the Swim Club and the Racquet Club, both as a competitor and as an organizer.Â
RHA also had cultural and philanthropic interests. In December 1876, reflecting a serious interest in things oriental on his part, RHA was elected as a member of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. In March 1879 he was nominated as a Trustee of the Chinese Hospital (ä»æ¿Ÿé†«é™¢ Renji Yiyuan)—established by the Medical Missionary Society, and supported mainly by foreign officials and businessmen—to replace Egbert Iveson who had left China and was not expected to return.
Very little information is accessible about RHA’s personal affairs in China. Around 1875/6, he linked up with a Chinese woman named Tokow, or To Kau, with whom he had two sons: George Richard and Thomas Henry. Did RHA marry her? The question defies a clear answer for various reasons. They later separated and she then became a concubine of Tong Ping E, a Cantonese merchant working in Shanghai.
After nearly 20 years in China, RHA returned to England, for the 1891 UK Census listed him, on April 5, 1891, as aged 45, single(emphasis added), and living in the parish of St. George, Hanover Square, Middlesex, Head of Household, at 161 New Bond Street, London. The 1891 UK Census also revealed that later that year, he married Mabel Ilma C. Handley in the St George Hanover Square registration district. She was born in 1871 at Lambeth, which makes her some 25 years younger than her husband. Their marriage raises an interesting question about RHA’s true marital status. In a 1923 lawsuit in Shanghai, his former Chinese partner Tokow was identified as “Mrs. Artindale†(“Land and Hotel Shares – Valuable Chinese Family Property in Action at the Supreme Court,†NCH, June 23, 1923, pp. 839-40; and “A Chinese Family Dispute – Settlement in Supreme Court Action,†NCH, August 4, 1923, p. 348), and yet back in England, RHA had declared himself a bachelor in 1891. The truth remains out of reach and RHA seemed to have kept his personal affairs in China well hidden. As far as we know, he did not maintain contact with his Anglo-Chinese family.
George Richard Artindale worked for the well-known firm, Jardine, Matheson & Co. in Shanghai and married Lucy May Chan, a Eurasian from Hong Kong. He died of an illness in 1922 at the young age of forty-five. They had two girls: Violet Mary, who died in 1920, and Alice Elsie, 1913 – 1990. Thomas Henry Artindale married Katherine M. Koch in Shanghai. He later migrated to Canada and nothing further is known about him. They had three sons: Frederick Henry, Robert and Richard S. After Shanghai fell to the Japanese, Katherine, her children and grandchildren were interned as “foreign aliens†in the Longhua Civilian Assembly Centre for two and a half years. Coincidentally, they were in the same camp that held J.G. Ballard, the well-known novelist whose Empire of the Sun (later, a movie) was based on his childhood experiences of that episode
 http://www.historyshanghai.com/admin/WebEdit/UploadFile/NameLonghua.pdf).
Like thousands of other internees under Japanese occupation, they suffered the harsh living conditions and brutal treatment of the Japanese guards. After World War Two, Fred and his family emigrated to California, where he became known as a maker of fine handcrafted stringed instruments, and Richard’s son Donald eventually settled in Sydney, Australia.                  Â
By Bruce Chan, 27 Jan. 2014, Toronto, Canada. His late Aunt, Lucy May Chan, 1881-1977, was the wife of George Richard Artindale, c.1877-1922, the Eurasian son of Robert Henry Artindale.Â
