Northern Ireland folk who went East and made their mark on history

and Charles de Burgh Daly - Emily was Percy French’s sister.

The four are amongst over a hundred Irish expats who served in China, Japan and Korea in the 19th century, featured in historian Robin Masefield’s latest book.

Aptly titled ‘The World Administered by Irishmen’ and subtitled ‘The Life and Times of Robert Hart and Contemporary Irish in East Asia’, Hart and Porter get a mention here today with Emily and Charles featuring on Roamer’s page very soon.

After graduating at Queen’s College Belfast, 19-year-old Portadown-born Robert Hart joined the British Consular Service

in 1854 he was appointed to the Consulate in Ningbo.

Sailing there from Hong Kong, his ship narrowly escaped capture by pirates, which didn’t discourage him from remaining in East Asia and becoming one of China’s most influential westerners.

Ningbo (known to westerners as ‘Ningpo’) was one of the first five treaty ports opened to foreign trade after the first Opium War.

Hart celebrated his Christmas 1854 there by writing a clever little ditty to the tune of Auld Lang Syne:

“Friends, here we are who destined were in foreign lands to roam,

In the Celestial Empire for a time we’ve fixed our home… Then as we’re far from English joys - girls - concerts - balls – and plays,

The best of Chinese Customs blend with good old English ways.”

Only 22 foreigners resided in Ningbo when Hart arrived so the Portadown-lad embarked on speaking and writing Chinese, coached by an elderly tutor.

Undoubtedly his local vocabulary was somewhat extended by his relationship with a local boatman’s daughter called Ayaou, with whom Robert had three children.

Hart headed the Chinese Government’s Maritime Customs Service for 45 years.

In 1863 another Irish expat joined the Consular Service in China - Francis Knowles Porter, a son of the Presbyterian Minister in Belfast’s Rosemary Street.

Francis spent his first two years learning the lingo in Beijing and started writing to his parents back home.

Over 50 of his letters have been preserved, an early one mentioning his Irish colleagues in Beijing who “won’t believe that I crossed the bridge at Carrick a Rede; and I am looked upon as little less than a lunatic for saying that my father and sister both accomplished the feat.

"It certainly looks worse in the picture than it is in reality - though bad enough in either.”

In September 1868, Francis wrote to his mother about being posted to Ningbo - “Of the Consul (Fittock) I know no more than that he is a good-natured fellow and inclined to treat his juniors well: nor of his wife, than that she drops her h’s, and has a large family of small brats.

"The Chief facetiously told me that one of the duties of an Assistant is to wheel the Consuless’ children in a perambulator after office hours!”

There was, however, a marked change in the tone of Porter’s letters after his arrival in Ningbo.

On the one hand, he told his parents that the people there were very nice, even Mrs Fittock - “a charming little woman”, and there was “a very pretty girl here whom I love very dearly”.

But, in January 1869, he told his mother “I have passed a thoroughly miserable Christmas… I wish to God I was with you all this Christmas; but I hope and mean to be before long.

"My exile is growing totally intolerable. Whether it is that I want a wife, or what I know not; but I am rather homesick”.

Alas, he didn’t get to visit them and his career came to a premature end - Francis drowned on 3 April, on an excursion up-river.

It was reported that after dinner he told his friends he’d have a quick swim, as he slept better afterwards.

They heard him splashing in the water near their boats, and then a despairing cry for help but they were unable to reach him.

The official accounts suggest strong currents or cramp.

There’ll be more here from Robin Masefield’s latest book soon, meanwhile it’s available at www.blackstaffpress.com or by email to [email protected]