Cemetery: Past and Present

John Thomson’s photo was taken at the Protestant Cemetery in Happy Valley, then part of the Hong Kong Colonial Cemetery. The 2015 image was taken in virtually the identical position. This is evident from the graves in the left of Thomson’s image, with the same tombstones appearing in the centre left of the 2015 photo. Here lie buried the mortal remains of James Smith (J.S. on his footstone), Colin S. Matheson and Louisa Green (died 1866). Recent construction prevented the 2015 photographer moving back as Thomson did, and the tree is gone. The cemetery’s chapel – with no known name – is the oldest remaining European building in Hong Kong. It appears in both images, though it is mostly obscured by a bamboo clump at the extreme left of Thomson’s view.