TO ORDER VERNER BICKLEY’S BOOKS, please see: Publications available through Proverse Hong Kong.
Searching for Frederick will appeal to the general reader as a light-hearted and partly autobiographical diary of travels in the present and into the past. But it is more than that. It is a survival manual and a practical guide to processes of biographical research and language education. As such, it will be of value to educationists and historians (including family historians) and those interested in issues of language choice and language use.
For over a decade, the search took place in archives, record offices, libraries and other repositories in Hong Kong, London, Cambridge (England) and Scotland, as well as in people’s memories. The subject was the Hon. Dr Frederick Stewart, a Scot of modest origins, destined to become the founder of Hong Kong Government Education and the Head of the Hong Kong Civil Service. The book tells the story of a ten-year hunt for information about Stewart, a man who earned “the universal respect of all classes and races of the (Hong Kong) population.”
“Verner Bickley writes in a mostly light-hearted vein, with a gentle humour, whether about the loss of a much-loved pair of cotton socks or his “wig.” The book is peopled with astrologers, landladies, hoteliers and others and takes the reader on a trail after Stewart, with many diversions including the Knights Templar, Culloden, whisky distilleries, ‘Seven Deadly Sin Cocktails’ and advice never to whistle in a stone frigate.” (Sir James Hodge in the Foreword).
Verner Bickley, MBE, Ph.D., was born in England and educated at the University of London. After naval service in South Asia, he was appointed to the Colonial Service as an Education Officer in Singapore. Later, he held senior positions in Burma, Indonesia and Japan as a British Council Officer; in Hawaii as Director of the East-West Centre’s Culture Learning Institute and in Saudi Arabia as Head of Language Training for Saudi Arabian Airlines.
Dr Bickley had had extensive radio and television experience with (the then) BBC Far Eastern Statin; NHK, Tokyo; Radio Republik Indonesia and Radio Singapore and he is the author of more than twenty textbooks and articles on international education, language and culture.
From 1983 to 1992, Dr Bickley served in Hong Kong as Assistant Director of Education and Director of the Government’s Institute of Language in Education. He is currently an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre of Asian Studies and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the English-Speaking Union in Hong Kong.
Foreword by Sir James Hodge
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Author’s note
Preface
The Beginnings /No Embarrassment of Riches/ Enquiries in Edinburgh/Blown to London/ Societies, Books and Records/ Images of Hong Kong/ A Discovery at Kew/ Tasks in Aberdeenshire/ Searching for Helen/ Kalakaua’s Visit/ The Training Ship/ Which Language?/ Ordino to London/ A Body on the Line/The Northern Lights of Aberdeen/ Macgregor’s Gathering/ The Monastery/ From Church to Library/ Hair-raising in Fraserburgh/ Unfinished Business/ Language “Awareness” and Social Pressures/ Once More to Scotland/ Conversations in the Aul’ton/ English or Chinese, Or Both? The Commission Ponders/ The Visit/ Publication
Glossary
Appendix
Notes and References
Bibliography
Index
TO ORDER VERNER BICKLEY’S BOOKS, please see: Publications available through Proverse Hong Kong.