TRIBUTE TO GLADYS AYLWARD AND THE LIVERPOOL CHINESE GOSPEL MISSION

Thanks to all of the people who donated towards the blue plaque for 20 Nelson Street. The plaque is now being manufactured and will be placed on the building in January. The Sound Agents will organise a tribute on the day to Gladys Aylward, the Liverpool Chinese Gospel Mission and all of the children who played a part in the 1958 film 'The Inn of the Sixth Happiness'

JUST GIVING CAMPAIGN REACHES 100%

Target reached! Good Team Work

                        Dr Wellington Koo at the opening of the Chinese Republican Progress Club

The Sound Agents are delighted to share with you that together we have raised £750 of the £750 target to place a blue plaque on 20 Nelson Street to celebrate Gladys Aylward attending the Liverpool Chinese Gospel Mission and the children/adults who took part in the 1958 film The Inn of Sixth Happiness, based on the story of Gladys Aylward 'The Small Woman' 

A brass plate will detail the visit of Dr Wellington Koo, the Republic of China Ambassador to Great Britain at the time this photo was taken outside 20 Nelson Street on the 29th December 1941, at the opening of the Chinese Republican Progress Club in the building which was formally a Scandinavian Boarding House. 

Dr Wellington Koo was in Liverpool to settle a bitter dispute between Chinese Merchant Seamen and the British shipping lines over low pay and disparity in wages during the war. 

MUSEUM IN THE STREET

                                                    Donate Here:   Just Giving Campaign 

The Sound Agents are raising funds to remember Gladys Aylward, a missionary who often visited 20 Nelson Street, Chinatown, Liverpool, now the Guangdong Social Club previously Chilli Chilli restaurant. 

20 Nelson was formerly a Mission. Gladys remarkable story of her journey to China despite obstacles in life she went on to save over a hundred orphans from a Japanese invasion, was captured in a book entitled: The Small Woman written by Alan Burgess

In 1958 the book was made into a film by 20th Century Fox, starring Ingrid Bergman, Curt Jurgens and Robert Donat and a couple of hundred Liverpool Chinese children! The set of China was built in Beddgelert North Wales and the children went to stay in hostels with chaperones. 

Chinese Ambassador Dr Wellington Koo opening the Chinese
Republican Progress Club 1941

20 Nelson Street was also the home of the Chinese Republican Progress Club. The Chinese Ambassador Dr Wellington Koo visited on the day it was opened 29th December 1941.

Dr Wellington Koo

20 Nelson Street was previously a Scandinavian Sailors Home. 

BLUE PLAQUE FOR THE FORCIBLY DEPORTED CHINESE SEAMEN

On Friday 19th July, descendants of Chinese seamen who were forcibly deported from Liverpool by the British Government in 1946, gathered to pay their respects at the blue plaque to commemorate the men.

Joe Phillips Sze

Charles and Yvonne Foley

Judy Kinnin, John Sze and Keith Cocklin

With thanks to Pine Court Housing Shaun Williams and David Draper

Pictured with Judy Kinnin

The BBC filmed the event, 20:23 mins in 
Look Northwest Forced Chinese Deportations

The plaque was funded by a CrowdFund campaign ran by The Sound Agents

Pine Court Housing/Sovini are proud to have the plaque on their building to teach future generations of the injustice and shame bought on by the British Government in 1946.

 

BLUE PLAQUE FOR THE DEPORTED CHINESE SEAMEN AND THE CHILDREN AND WIVES LEFT BEHIND

In 1946 post WWII, thousands of Chinese seamen were forcibly deported from Liverpool by the British Government. This blue plaque is dedicated to the seamen and to the children and wives left behind. 

The Sound Agents working with Pine Court Housing have placed a blue plaque on the wall of 19 Great George Square, Chinatown, Liverpool. No 19 was originally No 17 Great George Square, a Chinese Boarding House owned by Kwok Fong. 

Kwok Fong also owned The Far East Restaurant next door, when the Boarding House closed the restaurant expanded. Kwok Fong and his son Tony Kwok were present when the police raided the Boarding Houses and took the men down to the Docks to an awaiting ship in the Sloyne in the River Mersey. Never to see their families again. 

The descendants of the forcibly deported Chinese seamen need answers. 

Photo: Moira Kenny - Campbell

The Plaque was paid for by a Just Giving campaign

Many thanks to everyone who donated. 

                             19 Great George Square, Liverpool. Former Chinese Boarding House

Photo: Moira Kenny - Campbell