At 104, Mr Andrew's memory is sharp.
He slips into the Hong Kong of the 20s
and 30s with ease

Still fluent in Cantonese, 103-year-old Kenneth Andrew, who retired from the Hong Kong Police Force in 1938 as Chief Detective Inspector, will be 104 this month. An author of over six books (including novels) on his life and times in the Force and in the RAF, the centurion says he is proud to have served in the Police Force - and quite happy, thank you, to be the oldest person still collecting a pension from the Hong Kong Government . . .

IN a rest home on a quiet, tree-lined English street in Bournemouth sits Kenneth Andrew. At 103 he is Hong Kong's oldest former policeman. His eyesight is not as good as it was and he relies on a walking frame to get around. But he has an air of one who is content with his life and once he starts talking it's obvious he has lived a full one.

¡@Mr Andrew's fondest memories are far from the deafening silence of sleepy downtown Bournemouth. His adventures began in 1911 when he stepped aboard a PNO ship in England and five weeks later arrived in Hong Kong.

¡@Just one of 153 British policemen in the territory, there is one incident Andrew can't forget - his close brush with death.

¡@It happened while staking out the Wah Long Distillery when he was attacked by two men from a gang, one wielding a gun, the other a dagger made of razor blades.

¡@"Man Yat was the leader of the gang whom we had caught in the commission of armed robbery and he tried to shoot me. But his gun didn't go off, it was a bit damp. So I shot him through the heart," recalls the centurion. And to prove his point he thumbs through Hong Kong Detective, one of six books he has had published on his days in Hong Kong, and points to a black-and-white photograph that shows a young man lying on his back with the dark ring of a bullet hole through his chest.

¡@"My sergeant shot the man with the dagger and he died in hospital the next day," continues Mr Andrew. "One of the robbers hid behind a wall in the courtyard. Every time he saw a policeman he would fire at us. He was a good aim and shot one of my men through the head. Meanwhile two of the robbers fled on the junk."

¡@But former Hong Kong police detective Andrew was prepared for this and had a police launch stationed in the bay. He set off a light in the direction that they had fled and his sergeant at sea caught up with the junk and the two men. "We caught all seven: dead, alive and wounded," recalls Mr Andrew, with a small measure of pride.

¡@Kenneth Andrew stood out from many of his peers on the Force in that he was one of the few British who learned Cantonese. And what's more impressive is that he is still fluent today. But his linguistic ability was a guarantee that he would have nothing of a quiet life.

¡@"All the underworld knew that I could speak their language so they used to supply information to me at all hours of the day - and the early morning - in person on the street, on the telephone or anywhere else," he recalls. "My life was made very busy."

¡@In 1918 Mr Andrew had been in the Force seven years when he was asked if he would like to go home to join the fighting forces. "Like a fool I said yes and joined the Royal Flying Corps. That same year it became the Royal Air Force," says the elderly raconteur, who rose to the rank of squadron leader and served in both World Wars.

¡@Mr Andrew's memory is sharp, and with ease he slips into the Hong Kong of the 1920s and 1930s. Those were the days when Connaught Road was on the waterfront and Wan Chai was a far cry from the commercial district that it is today.

¡@"There were two streets of prostitutes in Wan Chai - one for Chinese and one for Japanese. The girls were good people and they never bothered anybody. They all had a document with a photograph and a stamp on it showing they were prostitutes. If a client contracted VD all he had to do was contact the police and they would send a doctor down to the brothel. If a girl was infected she'd be in the hospital for six weeks. They never gave us any trouble."

¡@The only trouble, according to Mr Andrew, came when the American fleet was in town. US Sailors would buy a case of beer, head straight for the brothels and throw the empty beer cans at the police.

¡@Andrew was admitted to hospital 34 times during his 27 years in Hong Kong for everything from dysentery to malaria. He has a few scars to show for his time here, such as the marks up his leg where he was attacked by a large crowd armed with broken bottles after breaking up a group of high-rollers in a Kowloon gambling den. But he does not complain. The scars are an integral of his memories.

¡@His happiest recollection?

¡@"All of it. I made a good life in Hong Kong," he says, and you know he's speaking from the heart.

¡@Andrew turns 104 this month. So what is his secret to longevity?

¡@"All mighty God," he says.

¡@The good news for smokers is that he used to puff 50 cigarettes a day. The bad news? He gave up after WWII, when a new tax was levied on tobacco.

¡@OFFBEAT thanks Hong Kong writer and journalist Kate Whitehead for this story. Kate met Mr Andrew while in England interviewing former Hong Kong Police officers as part of the research she is doing for an upcoming book about murder in Hong Kong. If anyone in the Force has a good tale or relevant information about their involvement in past murder investigations, Ms Whitehead would appreciate hearing from you. Contact OFFBEAT for her phone number.