1870s

Attends primary school in Hong Kong and learns to read and write in Chinese. The school has one classroom and one teacher with girls and boys separated by a screen. Robert Ho Tung is said to be among the male students there.

Strictly brought up and feet bound. Always told to adopt good posture and behave properly at meals. Later teaches grandson Robert Hung Ngai in a similar manner.

“My sister and I were left in the care of my grandfather and Margaret at Idlewild on Seymour Road, as my father was always away – he was an army man in the Kuomintang – and my mother would be with him.

“This was the 1930s but every week, Margaret would ask me to dine with her up in her apartment, where she taught me all about etiquette. Sit upright and don’t slouch! This was repeated and repeated. She did ask me about school and other things. But mainly she wanted to teach me the proper way of holding chopsticks or how to hold your bowl.

“She was very stern. There was no talking back and you couldn’t leave until you were excused. I liked her but I was really scared of her!

“So I would sit there while Margaret lectured me. Then we would listen to the radio. I still remember hearing a serialized Chinese story about the Three Kingdoms, broadcast by ZEK (now RTHK). There we were, just the two of us – and a dog called Jockey. I could not get away. Finally, Margaret would say: ‘All right! You can go now.’”

- Reminiscence of Robert H. N. Ho

1877

Margaret’s mother passes away. It is thought she may have been friends with and lived nearby Robert Ho Tung’s mother, Madam Sze. Margaret, already informally engaged to Robert Ho Tung, is then looked after by Madam Sze while Robert has to move away from home.