The Peninsula Hotel's Former Fountain

Another re-publishing of a film-related post from my old, and now defunct history blog. I suppose this is one might loosely fall into the "Now/Then" category - although it's an on-screen artifact we are looking at rather than a location.

I can't remember where I first heard it - possibly on local Facebook history group when I still had an account - but someone had mentioned that a fountain that once sat, pride of place, in the centre of the Peninsula Hotel's front driveway had been donated to a local school on Hong Kong Island.

There is a brief clip in Soldier of Fortune (1955) that nicely captures it in its former Peninsula Hotel glory.

Soldier of Fortune (1955)

Anyway, after posting my little snippet of historical info on Gwulo.com, someone turned up to correct me and post that it wasn't donated at all but, in fact, was purchased by their grandmother. You can read the comments on the Gwulo link I just posted above but in essence, this person's grandmother, Mrs Wen (溫廖詠楚), was the woman responsible for the creation of the True Light Middle School in Hong Kong.

Mrs Wen was one of the teachers at the True Light Middle School in the Baihedong area of Guangzhou (Canton) and, following the war, she came to Hong Kong and bought a plot of land at 50 Tai Hang Road. Historically, religious groups have been allowed to purchase plots of land very cheaply in Hong Kong on the proviso that the land was used to provide schooling. This is one of the main reasons why most current local Hong Kong schools are founded by and governed by a religious/church organisation.

This was the site, on Tai Hang Road, where the Hong Kong True Light Middle School was established in 1947 and still remains to this day. The events surrounding Mrs Wen's ownership of the fountain are not explained, but in 1965 she bought the fountain from the hotel and donated it to the school where it still stands in the main front courtyard.
  

Actually, if you look very closely at the base, you can see that the one at the school differs slightly. The original one on the screencap above has a rounded lip, but the school one is just flat, so I guess the original base was unsalvageable - perhaps it couldn't be removed without damage. All the same, it's nice to see a little bit of Hong Kong history surviving in a location different from its original one (it happens more than you would think). The screenshot below (from A Queen's Ransom) shows you what replaced it. I think I know which one I prefer.
   

The replacement fountain seen in A Queen's Ransom (1976)