Norfolk man’s life in the Shanghai Fire Brigade 100 years ago revealed in Harleston exhibition

Images from a Harleston Heritage Open Days exhibition, which were nearly thrown away, have revealed an extraordinary tale of a Norfolk man’s life as part of the Chinese fire brigade in Shanghai more than 100 years ago.

Some of the collection – of more than 2,000 pictures which were in the roof space of the former Denny’s shop in The Thoroughfare – are on display at The Swan Hotel in an exhibition, called Shanghai Fire.

Talking about how they came to be discovered, Ian Carstairs, who helped to put the exhibition together, felt the pictures were of international significance as the Shanghai Fire Brigade was at the forefront of the global fire services of the time.

He said: “When the shop was being sold in around 2018, a woman called Margaret Griffiths was invited to go along to get some old glass plates from the shop and, while she was there, she was asked if she wanted this old box of stuff on the floor, otherwise it was going to the skip.

“She thought it looked quite interesting so she took it home. When I sat down with her and went through it all, this utterly amazing story began to unfold.”

The pictures belonged to a Basil M Hunting, who was in the Shanghai Fire Brigade at the turn of the 20th century.

Ian said: “It was a fantastic detective story from some extraordinary material, as that I and researcher Kate Chenneour undertook to find out whose pictures these were.

“Eventually, we also found relatives of Basil, such as his granddaughter who came to the exhibition on Saturday.

“This utterly amazing story all came from a box in a Harleston shop attic, which no one had ever seen before and may have never seen at all if it had gone in the skip.”

The pictures, which now have a home in the archives of Bristol University, have already been very popular since first being shown last weekend.

Ian said: “People have been fascinating by it, and that this material was in a roof in Harleston for many many years.

“Also, the scope of those photographs, they are utterly unique and I doubt whether there is anything like them in the world. Giving us a look into the social life, professional life and the cultural context of China 100 years ago.

Due to the exhibition’s popularity, Shanghai Fire will be continue this weekend during the Harleston Food and Drink Festival.