HKU Bulletin October 2003 (Vol. 5 No. 1)

W hen Hong Kong police officer, Albert Poon, tucked a Browning pistol into his cockpit for the Macau Grand Prix it was not designed to start the race but stop Chairman Mao’s Red Guards. This is just one of the historical nuggets uncovered by Philip Newsome, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Dentistry, who has just written a lavish book to celebrate this year’s 50th anniversary of the race. The book will represent ample reward for the racing fanatic who has been assiduously researching the origins of the race – famed as the nursery for tomorrow’s Formula One stars – since 1987. Newsome recalled: “I first came to Hong Kong on holiday in 1985. I am a big motor racing fan and first came here specifically to get to the Macau Grand Prix. “I had found out about it because two years before, when I was still in the UK, I’d heard that it had been won by Ayrton Senna – who is regarded by many as the best racing driver ever. “I was intr igued by this far away place and wanted to visit W it.” ithin a year Newsome had taken up a position at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital and has never looked back since. His enthusiasm for chronicling the Grand Prix rests, in part, in his own frustrated racing career. “When I was in England I tried racing but wasn’t very good. Nevertheless I wanted to be involved and did some articles and wrote bits about various aspects of motor racing,” said the dentist, “The seed then developed in 1987 to write a book about the Grand Prix.” Five years later he publ ished a book to mark i ts 40th anniversary. The roots of the race rest in the early 1950s when three Portuguese expatriates wrote to the Hong Kong Motor Sports Club, seeking advice on how to set up a leisurely motorized ‘treasure hun W t’. hen a Hong Kong teacher and club member went out to help them, however, he saw the potential for something altogether more ambitious: not least because the road layout aped the famed Monaco circuit. Newsome said: “In the 50s and 60s it was very much a gentleman’s race drawn from Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. “It was only in the late 60s and 70s that it started to attract overseas big names and racing teams but the real breakthrough was when Senna won.” One of only two races that carries the title Grand Prix despite the fact that it is not Formula One, Macau has now become a breeding ground for tomorrow’s stars. Brothers Ralf and Michael Schumacher are just two of the current Formula One stars to have graced and raced the circuit. But Newsome has regrets that the origins of the race have been overtaken by modern times. “The first 10–15 years were the most interesting time: normal people doing abnormal things,” he said, “As the 60s wore on more crack outfits began to arrive and they would win it by laps. It took the fun out of it.” From the same decade Newsome did uncover the Poon anecdote. Poon himself told how the Red Guards had threatened the Chinese drivers in a bid to put a stop to the race. The tactic failed. Even the inevitable fatal accidents have failed to take the shine off one of the great motor racing attractions. For Newsome, however, it has also given him the chance to write his tribute to this unique event. He said: “When I came here I thought it would be nice to have a book as a souvenir. Now I’ve had the chance to write it.” Macau Grand Prix – 50 Years of Motor Racing. Watermark Publications. $350. To be released in October. Racing Passion Inspires New Book Philip Newsome 25 PEOPLE D r Eleanor Thom, who was one of the University’s first four women graduates, has died at the age of 99. Born in New York in 1904, Eleanor Thom came from a wealthy Chinese family but after her arrival in Hong Kong to complete her schooling she went on to dedicate the rest of her life to education in the territory. Her devotion to her faith – Catholicism – and the power of education might have led some to think that Dr Thom’s life had been a conventional one. This, however, would be a mistake. Trapped by the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941, Dr Thom real ized that her days as a US passport holder were numbered in the occupied territory. With the company of fellow HKU graduate Leung Man Wah, Thom fled across Japanese lines in early 1942 and eventually reached free China where the pair made their way to the then capital Chongqing, in Sichuan province. Her skills were to prove invaluable to the US Consulate where she landed a job until it was safe to move back to the country of her b A ir ft th e . r completing her doctorate in education at Columbia University Dr Thom returned to Hong Kong. But her plans were once again thrown into turmoil by events beyond her control. Dr Peter Cunich, who has researched Thom’s life, said: “She had intended to establish a new girls school in Guangzhou but after the Communist victory in 1949 she was unable to do that. So she stayed in Hong Kong for the rest of her life.” Her Hong Kong story began when she arrived at what is now called the Sacred Heart Canossian College, winning a Lugard Scholarship in 1921 for her final two years of secondary education. Dr Thom Wai Chun – whose fami ly was original ly from southern China – showed sufficient academic promise to be offered a place at The University of Hong Kong in 1923 to study education in the Faculty of Arts. Cunich said: “She achieved extremely high examination results – one of the best in her class – and after graduating in 1926 went back to the US to do a Masters degree at Columbia University. “Under the Hong Kong government scholarship scheme she was obliged to teach in Hong Kong and spent the 1930s at a government school.” She spent the 1960s as a lecturer at the Grantham Training College in Kowloon and after retirement dedicated most of her time to church work. A Life of Dedication Eleanor Thom 24