West Clare connections to the Shanghai Municipal Police and other parts of the Chinese administration

8:00 p.m. Tuesday 7 May 2019

WWW version:

http://pwaldron.info/Shanghai/

YouTube version:

TBA

Chinese history

From the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 to 1946:

Hong Kong was ceded to the U.K.; and
five additional treaty ports were established at
1. Shanghai;
2. Canton;
3. Ningpo;
4. Fuchow; and
5. Amoy.

In March 1865, HSBC opened its doors for business in Hong Kong.

Greater Shanghai had three sections:

the Shanghai International Settlement;
the French Concession; and
the Old City of Shanghai.

The Shanghai International Settlement began originally in 1842 as a purely British settlement but always remained Chinese sovereign territory.

Americans and French and other foreign powers gradually became part of the administration of the settlement.

The Shanghai Municipal Council first met on 11 July 1854.

In the late 1930s Japan's involvement became of increasing importance.

The international settlement came to an abrupt end in December 1941 when Japanese troops stormed in immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1943, the settlement was retroceded to Chinese control.

Shanghai Municipal Police were on patrol by September 1854.

Recruitment was by London agents, John Pook & Co.

By 1936, there were 4,739 men, of whom 457 were in the Foreign Branch in which the British and Irish served.

Force commanders included Pierre B. Pattison (Captain Superintendent, 12 Feb 1898-30 September 1900), on secondment from Royal Irish Constabulary.

For lots more, including lists of names, see the Shanghai Municipal Police web page by Robert Bickers.

Chain migration from West Clare to Shanghai

Most of the West Clare men who went to China were (or became) part of the Bermingham, Keane or Keating dynasties.

The pioneers appear to have been Micho Gibson and John O'Toole, who were both in their early 20s when they joined the Shanghai Municipal Police from the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1900.

Bermingham dynasty

Thomas Bermingham (1840-1924) of eviction fame m. 25 February 1868 (Kilkee parish) Margaret McGrath and two generations of their descendants worked in Shanghai:

Matthew (1871-1952) of Moyasta
Catherine (1877-1952) m. 1904 Martin O'Connell of Moyasta (family photograph?)
- Mary (1906-????) m. John Campbell of Shanghai Municipal Police (ex-R.I.C.)
- Bridie (1907-1996) m. (1) Anthony (Tony) O'Dwyer (1888-1933) of Carrigaholt, Chief Inspector, joined 1912, died in Shanghai of appendicitis. His grave was possibly erased by Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution, according to his late nephew-in-law Tom Hickey, who looked for it with help from the Consulate. Tony had a "brother in the force" (Thomas O'Dwyer in the gaol branch?)
  Bridie m. (2) Cecel W. McPherson, another police man, and had a son. They remained in the Far East (including Siam) until at least 1950.
- Michael Joseph (1912-2007), the M J O'Connell who served in the Shanghai Municipal Police's gaol branch from 1933. He returned home and married Delia Carmody in 1945.
Elizabeth (Ellen) (1882-1973) m. 1911 John O'Toole (1877-????), home on leave from Shanghai, eventually Assistant Commissioner of Police, and had nine children, including at least four born in Shanghai:
- Eileen
- Kathleen (1918-2007)
- James Davitt Bermingham (d.1973, Brookline MA)
- Sheila (1921-2018), who tells the story of growing up in Shanghai in her "Memoir: The Reminiscences of Sheila Lawlor", published privately and launched on 19 Nov 2013 by Fr. Tom Stack
- and probably also Margaret Mary Birmingham (1917-1996) B.L., known as "Shanghai Lil", only the 21st woman called to the Irish bar.
eight more children, including three sons in the Dublin Metropolitan Police

Keane dynasty

Thomas Keane (1864-1934) of Carrigaholt m. 12 February 1890 (Carrigaholt) Mary Anne Cahill and had 11 children, including:

P[atrick] Keane was in the Shanghai police service from 1911 to 1921
Michael Keane (1896-1941) joined the Chinese Maritime Customs Service in Dec 1920 as a Probationary Tidewaiter, and died from cancer when he was based in Shanghai as a Tidesurveyor. He worked in Nan king, Newchang, Canton and Shanghai. He lived at different times in Shanghai, Canton, Newchawang, Nanjing and Tintsin. Married in Shanghai. Every four years, the family would return home to spend a year in Ireland as a condition of employment with the Custom Service.
Thomas (Sharkey) Keane (1898-1963), West Clare Brigade, Old IRA, and chairman of Carrigaholt Sinn Féin club
John Keane (1911-1992) of Keane's pub stayed at home

Keating dynasty

John Keating of Feeard (d. 1878 aged 68) had three children who remained in the area, all of whom had children who went to China:

John jr. of Feeard (d. 1886 aged 45) m. 11 February 1872 (Carrigaholt) Margaret McInerney and had 12 children, including:

Pat Keating (d.1961) who may have been in the Shanghai Police, but Mary Culligan says that Pat wasn't in the Police Force but had something to do with Posts & Telegraphs.
In his early twenties, Pat joined the British Civil Service and went to China in 1906.
Having returned to Ireland around 1933, he donated a thousand pounds in 1938 for a marble altar in the Catholic church in Cross village near his birthplace.
For many years, he owned and lived at Plassy House, now the president's house at the University of Limerick, and hence known as The White House to UL students.
Kevin Hannan (who never cited his sources) wrote:
Plassy was in pristine condition when purchased from Eric Baily in 1933 by Patrick Keating, a Co. Clare bachelor, who made his money in the Far East wtihout fighting any battles, spending many years in Manchuria as a judge in the British Colonial service. He was, apparently, a daring gambler on the property and business market and when he arrived at Plassy he retained considerable investments in the Far East.
Keating's life-line was cut by Mao Tse Tung in 1949 and thereafter he had to depend on the produce of the extensive Plassy green houses to maintain the estate and sustain himself. Though he was later forced by grim necessity to sell the fabric of the old mill, he never suffered a tree to be damaged in any way. From the beginning of his tenure he took steps to prevent picnicers from damaging trees by lighting fires close to them.
After Keating's death, in 1961, the Rehabilitation Institute of Ireland purchased the estate ...
Keating certainly got into financial difficulties when events in China eroded the value of his pension and investments.
During his lengthy stay in China, where he lived for almost twenty-seven years, he enjoyed various challenges and responsibilities. The Shanghai Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs notes his involvement with Customs and Excise and Foreign Currency Exchange. He also served in the Postal Department in the Central Office in Peking.

Mary m. 17 March 1859 (Carrigaholt parish) Martin Gibson of Moneen and had 13 children, including:

Micho Gibson (1878-1953) m. 4 November 1911 (Lisdoonvarna) Hanna Synnott (1888-1967)
Micho influenced his first cousin Pat Keating's move to China in 1906.
Like John O'Toole, Micho was home on leave from Shanghai when he married in 1911.
Hanna's honeymoon diary describes her first journey from Lisdoonvarna to Shanghai. The newly weds caught a train from Ennistymon at 1:20pm, and eventually arrived in Shanghai on Christmas day.
Mr O'Toole had traveled home from China with Micho some months previously and he too had married in the meantime and was accompanied now by his wife when they met at Roscrea on the Gibsons' wedding day.
The diary says that Pat Keating was based in Canton at the time of Hanna's arrival in China in 1911. He travelled to Hong Kong to meet her and her husband as they passed through on their honeymoon voyage.

Seven Gibson children, at least five born in Shanghai:

Michael John jr. (1913-1999)
(Peter) Leo (1915-1980)
Dermot (1919-1982)
Paddy
Mary F (Culligan) (b. 1926, living in Dublin, recorded by Cuimhneamh an Chláir in about 2013)

Thomas (d. 1934) m. 17 February 1885 Mary Behen of Rehy East and had 7 children, including:

Bernard Keating, who was in the Shanghai Police from 1910 to 1916 before going on to Australia
Volunteer Patrick Keating, West Clare Brigade, member of the Volunteers since 1917, mortally wounded by Enemy Forces in 1922 and buried with Military Honours, in Kilballyowen.
Mary Anne Keating m. 30 Jul 1935 (Cross) John Thomas Scanlan (1890-1975) of Moyarta, who served with the police force in Shanghai from 1912-1915.
John Scanlan got sick in Shanghai, with something like cholera or malaria, and after a long time in hospital, came home only three years after he went out. The outbound journey alone had taken three months.
The two Scanlan families living in Moyarta became known as the Shangs and the Westbys to distinguish them from each other.

Unrelated men

Martin Blake (21 April 1883-9 September 1913) from Kilbaha, ex-R.I.C, brother of Henry Blake, native Irish speaker, dancer, story-teller and craftsman.
The anonymous "Mr. Costello" who was best man at the wedding of Micho Gibson and Hanna Synnott on 4 November 1911 was the groom's Shanghai police colleague Stephen Costello (b. 18 Nov 1885) from Kilbaha. Stephen appears to have arrived back in Ireland on leave some time between the census of 2 April 1911 (when he was not with his parents in Kilbaha South and does not appear to have been in Ireland) and his father's death in Kilbaha on 18 Jul 1911 (when Stephen Costelloe of Kilbaha was present at death).
Photograph of Blake and Costello, courtesy of Kilbaha Gallery.
Michael Duggan (b. 8 March 1895) of Kilmihil was also in the SMP.
Daniel Ginnane (23, also from Carrigaholt) joined with Tony O'Dwyer in 1912 - b. 24 Sep 1890, served in the Shanghai Municipal Police from 1912 to 1936. Related to Mary Ginnane, retired postmistress Carrigaholt, who has a collection of Shanghai memorabilia.
?Stephen Power (1887-1924) and/or Jimmy Power (1892-1978) from Querrin.

Sources

Clare Champion, 16 January 2015 (by Peter O'Connell, greatnephew of two of the Claremen in Shanghai)
The Loop Head Gathering (2004), pp. 54-6
Robert Bickers, Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai (Columbia University Press, 2003)
Kevin Hannan, Limerick Historical Reflections (Limerick Leader Print, 1996)
Memoir: The Reminiscences of Sheila Lawlor (née O'Toole) (published privately, 2013)
Unpublished honeymoon diary of Hanna Gibson (née Synnott)
chinafamilies.net
Thanks to Robert Bickers, Robbie Brown, Fergus Clancy, Murray Ginnane, the O'Connell family, Mary O'Looney, Tom Veale (R.I.P.) and Pat Wall.