Of all the postings since joining the Overseas Civil Service in 1958 it was
difficult to decide which might be of interest to readers. Whenever
asked what I did in the Service my stock answer has been “administration”
which covers a multitude of sins. I eventually came to the conclusion that
my posting as Government Quartering Officer in Hong Kong might be of
interest and somewhat funny. I have refrained from naming names just in
case I might be sued for defamation of character but I am sure some
members might be able to name some of the incidents.
The Hong Kong Government owned a lot of flats but in the mid 80’s there
was a massive recruitment of overseas officers who were entitled to
Government quarters. As result the Government had to lease numerous
flats on fixed term tenancies. As one can imagine problems arose when the
lease terms came to an end. Families had settled in the location of their
flats, sent their children to local schools, joined local clubs etc, so it was only
natural that they would prefer to stay in the same location. Needless to say
this was not always possible therefore complaints were made to the
Quartering Officer.
Some of the excuses to stay in a particular area were quite amazing and I
could write many pages on these. For example, one family who had been
living in a ground floor flat with a small garden, very rare in Hong Kong, said
a member of the family was disabled and could only live on the ground floor.
On investigation this “disabled” person was seen sailing! They never got a
another ground floor flat but were moved into a block of flats on a high floor.
Others claimed it was difficult to drive to their offices, not a good excuse as
public transport in Hong Kong was excellent and cheap. The main problem
was schooling but in the end most families accepted the situation and got
their children into suitable schools but not always in the location of their
original school.
On vacating quarters I or my assistant conducted what we termed a
marching out inspection. This was to ensure the quarter vacated in a
reasonable state and no major alterations had been made. Some of these
inspections were a real eye-opener. One occupant who lived in a remote
part of the New Territories in a bungalow had sealed off the garage with iron
bars inside of which we discovered a brown bear! On further looking inside
the bungalow there were snakes in cages and other reptiles. In one of the
more senior quarters a four-poster bed had been built on a platform to which
access was by way of a pebble footpath from the main door. The whole bedroom was painted bright pink. Some occupants converted their amahs quarters and rear balconies into huge bird cages. The squawking of yellow
crested cockatoos and parrots didn’t go down too well with neighbours so
complaints to the QO. One occupant collected LP records but had two of
one, one which he played and one as a reserve. One and a half bedrooms
were completely lined with shelving storing hundreds of LP’s. On another
occasion an occupant built a small dinghy in one of the rooms but on
finishing it he couldn’t get it out. It took the Public Works Department and a
crane to extricate it, at the occupant’s expense! Another occupant hoarded
newspapers to the extent that rats and other bugs had infested the flat in
three of the rooms filled with newspapers and were spreading to other flats.
It cost the occupant a lot of expense to remove the papers and the flat had
to be fumigated five times. That inspection was quite frightening. Waterfilled
king-sized beds caused problems as they created a worry over floorloading
and flooding into lower flats. One did in fact burst and caused a lot
of damage to lower floors.
Abandoned cars was a major problem as it took a lot of administrative work
to check ownership, removal and eventual crushing. One of these stands
out as I had gone through all the proper procedures and then one day the so
called “owner” turned up to ask where his mini was. I explained what I had
done and that the car had been crushed. At this point “war” broke out and
the threat of suing me and compensation came up. The matter was
resolved but not to the “owner’s” benefit, to say no morel
Finally I must add that on retiring to Australia and joining a monthly group of
ex-Hong Kongers and when walking into the restaurant my greeting was it’s
the “b.... Quartering Officer, you kicked me out of such and such quarter”.
No offence was taken and we have a good group who frequently reminisce
about Hong Kong and even ask me to tell some tales of my experiences as
the QO.
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