The Helena May main building is a

declared monument of Hong Kong In the sport of cricket, a declaration occurs when a captain declares his team's innings closed and a forfeiture occurs when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings without batting. Declaration and forfeiture are covered in Law 15 of the ''Laws o ...

home to the Helena May, a private member club located at No. 35 Garden Road, in

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an Islands and peninsulas of Hong Kong, island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. The present-day building structure remains largely unchanged from its original building structure from 1914.

History

Constructed in 1914, the building was officially opened on 12September 1916 by Lady May, daughter of Lieutenant General

George Digby Barker General Sir George Digby Barker (Chinese Translated Name: 白加; 9 October 1833 – 15 April 1914) was a British soldier and colonial administrator. Military career Barker was commissioned into the 78th Regiment of Foot in 1853. He served in ...

, British Commanding Officer in China and Hong Kong from 1890 to 1895, as a respite for unaccompanied women arriving in Hong Kong. In 1891, Helena Barker married Sir

Francis Henry May Sir Francis Henry May (; 14 March 1860 – 6 February 1922) was a British colonial administrator who served as Governor of Fiji from 1911 to 1912 and Governor of Hong Kong from 1912 to 1918. Early life and education May was born in Dublin, Ire ...

, who would become Governor of Hong Kong in 1912. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the building was occupied by Axis Japanese forces and later requisitioned by the Royal Air Force at the end of the war until 1947. In 1985, The Helena May started accepting male members.

Past chairs after World War II

* 19 December 1946 - 9 April 1947 Josephine, Lady Young * 9 April 1947 - 12 October 1949 Mable M. Annett * 12 October 1949 - 9 May 1951 Mary A. Campbell * 9 May 1951 - 10 October 1951 Janet Adamson * 10 October 1951 - 22 October 1953 E. Frida Dunlop * 22 October 1953 - 21 October 1954 Gwendolyn Faber * 21 October 1954 - 20 October 1955 Ivy Sykes

References

External links

Official website of Helena May
*

Antiquities and Monuments Office The Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) was established in 1976 under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance to protect and preserve Hong Kong's historic monuments. Housed in the Former Kowloon British School, the AMO is responsible for iden ...

. Declared Monuments in Hong Kong
The Exterior of the Main Building, the Helena May
{{coord, 22.2775, 114.1584, display=t Central, Hong Kong Declared monuments of Hong Kong Mid-Levels

History

Past chairs after World War II

References

Further reading

External links