My Dearest Martha
Edited by Andrew Hillier
Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Studies Series. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press, 2021, 508 pages. ISBN 978-962-937-577-5, HK$278
Reviewed by Veronica Pearson
Many of us will remember distant days when a phone call ‘home’ required a trip to the Cable and Wireless Office and a three-minute conversation cost a small fortune. A mini-script would be prepared so nothing important was forgotten. Now we have WhatsApp; calls are free, lengthy and frequent. It was not always so!
To Martha Saul and her sister, Eliza Hillier, letters, perforce, were their lifeline to geographically spread family members and ‘the mail’ played a dominating role in their lives. They were the daughters of the Reverend Walter Medhurst (an outstanding Sinologue) and his wife, Betty, stalwarts of the London Missionary Society who worked in Batavia (Jakarta) and Shanghai. Eliza’s children were also raised in the Orient and familiar with its customs.
Eliza married Charles Hillier, bearing him five children. Hillier’s career took him to Hong Kong, where he became Chief Magistrate in 1847 and a member of Legco and Exco, before being appointed Britain’s first Consul in Siam in 1856, dying there in the same year. Grief-stricken Eliza moved to the U.K. and in 1864 married Charles Hole, a solicitor, bearing him two children. Martha married a Shanghai merchant, Powell Saul in 1849, moving briefly to the U.K. and then to Batavia before settling finally in England in 1855 on the death of her husband. Eliza and Martha exchanged letters throughout their adult lives, reflecting their closeness. Eliza’s letters to Martha were preserved by her family, forming this volume’s subject matter. They focus on family events and the minutiae of everyday life and are permeated by the constant worries accompanying pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing in tropical climates surrounded by diseases for which there was no effective treatment; only prayers and luck. In response to Martha’s concerns about her first pregnancy Eliza assures her that tearfulness and low spirits are normal. Feeling the baby move is a good sign but at all costs avoid tight clothing; ‘let every string and tie loose—never mind looks’. Martha is assured that her more personal letters will not be shared with Eliza’s husband; thus, she is safe to confide anything. Fear of childbirth? Eliza’s advice was
bracing ‘just fancy how many thousands of women have gone through the process and not died… this will only happen if a woman is old or deformed… although the suffering is great. There is no deceiving you on that point.’ In another letter Eliza tells Martha how her family celebrated Martha’s birthday all, including the children, drinking her health and the oldest boy shouting ‘hurrah!’.
Eliza asks Martha to give Mama a hint ‘not to write so many reproving letters about going out and not going to the chapel but to church’. It is upsetting her husband, who believes himself old enough to look after his wife and has written a ‘filial’ letter to that effect. Considering that his in-laws had been two of the most influential missionaries in China one can only admire his bravery! And money, especially in the early years of a career, was tight. The passage home was expensive, blowing a hole in an already stretched budget. When Charles died, leaving a widow and five dependent children, there was no widow’s pension. Lord Palmerston’s intervention was necessary before Eliza was grudgingly granted miserly financial support. Family had to fill the gap.
A slightly surprising leitmotif in these letters is the recurring theme of sewing, a uniquely feminine responsibility. Some of it concerns the decoration of bonnets, the embroidery of scarves—usual for Victorian women. However, much of it concerns the sewing of clothes from scratch for the children and it is clearly seen as onerous—after all, there were five of them!
‘I shall be very busy now making Willie’s winter things, as he is to be put into long trousers in another month and bid goodbye to petticoats’ is a typical example. Her lamentations concerning cost and labour when she realises that she has left a cache of baby clothes, nappies and so on irretrievably behind are long and loud. All will have to be reconstructed from scratch for the expected new arrival at considerable cost in time, money and her own labour.
Despite the general availability of ayahs and amahs, a deep love, concern and involvement with their children shines through. The sense of loss and grief on children’s deaths is no less for being frequent. Parental sadness on separation from children sent back ‘home’ for schooling and to escape the tropical fevers and infections, is intense. At one point, Eliza and Charles did not see their three eldest children for over three years. Letters cannot substitute for parents. Such separation is painful for them but damaging for children; aunts and grandparents are insufficient replacements for a loving mamma and papa. Inevitably, a price had to be paid. Their oldest
child, Willie, became a banker (out of convenience and inertia rather than conviction) and was sent to Portugal, then Brazil. Banking proved not to his taste so he opted for exploration and gold prospecting, retaining only the most tenuous contact with his family. He never returned home, succumbed to alcoholism and finally shot himself. The family were certain that his difficulties stemmed from his enforced lengthy childhood separation from much loved parents.
By the early 1880s the younger members of the family were spread across the globe. Three of Eliza’s sons were making successful careers in China and nephews and nieces were variously in India, the Philippines and Singapore. Letters, around which Eliza’s life had pivoted, kept on flowing.
Sir Robert Ho Tung: Public Figure, Private Man May Holdsworth
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2022, 220 pages and 46 illustrations. ISBN 978-988-8754-24-3, HK$380
Reviewed by Vivian Kong
This is a long-awaited book, and it doesn’t disappoint. This is the first booklength biography of Sir Robert Ho Tung published in English. Ever since
The Journal
For over sixty years the Society has published the annual Journal to present articles of interest both to general readers and scholars. Topics covered include the history of Hong Kong and its region; daily life and legal issues in now-lost rural communities; events in the lead up to WWII and the Japanese occupation; accounts of daring wartime escapes; and new perspectives on the characters who have contributed to the vibrancy of Hong Kong and its economic success. Reviews of recently published books on all these topics are also included.
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Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Studies Series
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In 2005, with support from the Ride Fund, the Society in collaboration with Hong Kong University Press published the first volume in the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Studies Series. Since 2016 series books have been issued by a number of publishers. To date, the Hong Kong Studies Series includes over 35 titles with new titles continuing to appear. A full list with links to publishers’ websites giving expanded descriptions and enabling purchasing can be found at http://www.royalasiaticsociety.org.hk/publications/hong-kongstudies-series.
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