Dave, Ruth, Henry & Bernie Gibson 2023

Bernadette Dolores Gibson (nee Loo)

 

Bernie's Birth was registered on 28 January 1963 by Catherine Dolores Loo.

 

Bernie was Roman Catholic by birth, but brought up a protestant, against the instructions of the fostering agreement!

 

Bernie had been born 3 months premature at 15 Granby Street, Toxteth and taken to Oxford Street Maternity Hospital. Her mother was 'unable to look after a child', so the Liverpool City Council Social Services Department arranged for her to be fostered on 17 April 1963 by Mrs Florence May Wilson (nee Hewitt). Bernie was fostered until she was married on 5 September 1987 to Paul David Gibson.

 

The Liverpool City Council Social Services Department had very little information on the fostering, but the file did state that Dolores was known to the Mental Welfare Department at Rainhill and that Bernie was fostered because Dolores was just not able to look after her.

 

Bernie's birth mother died of Chronic Obstructive Airways Disease on 21 February 1978 in the old Royal Liverpool Hospital (a mixture of Emphysema and Chronic Bronchitis). She had been a heavy smoker and also drank a lot.

 

Bernie's Father was not recorded on her birth certificate, but we have now identied who he was through DNA matching / triangulation. She has 2 half-sisters still alive in their 80s [1924].

Catherine Ellen Loo (nee Johnson)

b. 20 Jan 1900 d. 16 Dec 1961

- Bernie's maternal Grandmother

 

From 2011 to 2022 Liverpool museum had an exhibition in their new building at the Pier Head, which featured Bernie and 2 other members of the Chinese Community in tracking their chinese ancestry. This, however, formed only a small part in the work to uncover Bernie's biological family, which in all took towards 40 years.

 

Bernie’s search for her birth family began with a letter to Social Services in 1995 and the reply confirmed what she was always vaguely aware of - that her Mother’s father was Chinese, and Bernie’s surname Loo came from him.

 

Liverpool has one of the longest established Chinese communities in Europe, all thanks to Alfred Holt and Co’s momentous launch of the first direct steamship from Liverpool to China in 1866. Recruiting men from across Shanghai and Hong Kong, the Blue Funnel Line, as it became known, brought thousands of Chinese seamen to Liverpool, and many made the city their home. Sow Loo, Bernie’s Grandfather, was one such seafarer who arrived in Liverpool on board a Blue Funnel Ship in the late 1910s.

 

Sow Loo married Catherine Johnson in 1922, and was working in a laundry at the time. By checking trade directories in the Liverpool Record Office we found the business to be his, and that the Sow Loo Laundry also housed the family at 230 County Road, Walton. The laundry disappears from the directories in 1928, the same year that the story of the family moving to China emerges. Passengers lists for the Kashima Maru in 1929 records Catherine returning to Liverpool with two of her four children, without Sow Loo, in time for the birth of Bernie’s mother. Sow returned to liverpool separately with the other children in time time for the Birth of Catherine Dolores Loo.

 

........... and by 1942

Catherine Dolores Loo

b. 28 January 1930 d. 21 February 1978

- Bernie's Mother

 

Catherine Dolores Loo was known as Dolores Loo and even signed her name as Dolores C. Loo. Her birth was registered on 4 March 1930 from 2 Lower Breck Road, Liverpool, which may have been one of a couple of Chinese laundries owned by Dolores' father; the other being 320 County Road, Walton. She had been born on 28 January 1930 at 3 Belfast Road, the home address of her grandmother (Charlotte Johnson (nee Robinson))

 

In her early years, Dolores, or 'Do' as she was known, was a secretary in the Dale Street Police offices until she went to London at the age of 17 / 18 (1947-1952). Whilst in London, she almost got married to a Chinese man, but the marriage was not allowed because she was not full Chinese. She returned to 36 Selborne Street, some 9 years or so later (the home of her mother's common law husband). In 1957 she attained a Police record, but this record was destroyed upon her death. She was apparently broken hearted and penniless when she returned from London and consequently had a nervous breakdown putting her in Rainhill Hospital for 3 weeks. Apparently Francis (Frank) Loo also had a breakdown at some stage.

 

In 1963 Dolores moved in with Sid Barker, who owned the Cafe at 15 Granby Street. (In the 1955 the Cafe was Peters Myer cafe). She was regularly beaten when Sid was drunk and returned to Selborne Street bleeding and bruised. The beatings happened before and after her daughter's birth.

 

By 1968, she was living in the House of Help, Falkner House, 44 Falkner Street and we are not sure what happened to Sid. 

Sow Loo - Bernie's maternal Grandfather

b. 3 Sep 1891 Guangzhou, Shunde, Guangdong, China

(The City of Guangzhou (Canton), Shunde is a district of Foshan (Foshan being an interchange to the City). Guangdong is the overall province)

d. 3 Jan 1951

 

Sow Loo was a six feet tall gambler, (height confirmed by George Reading & Cis Jones) and he had an illegal gambling den at 14 Pitt Street, Liverpool. The Police raided his premises, but officers were bribed to tip-off raids. A week after one such raid a successful one was made without a tip-off and Sow Loo lost money and was put out of business.

 

On 1 October 1927 he sailed on the Demodocus from Liverpool with his wife, Christian, Eunice, Harry and Francis to Quangzhou City, (Canton, China). The rest of the English family begged his wife, Catherine Johnson, not to go. When in China he had two concubines!

 

In 2021 we have still only confirmed evidence [1925 Kelly's Trade Directory] of one Laundry at 230 County Road [former owner and employer Ming Bing and family in 1921 Census]. and he lived at 2 Lower Breck Road when he married. There were other laundries at the time owned by Din Loo, who may have been his brother. 

 

He returned to England on 28 January 1930 (or 6 Jan on image) (Port of Departure: New York, United States Arrival Date: 28 Jan 1930. Port of Arrival: London, England. Ship Name: kashima maru), after his wife had managed to return via the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong some months earlier.

 

There was another Sow Loo married to Nuteline Chee in 1929 and he was known as Tai Chee. There is a London newspaper article refering to him as Tai Chay ' Sow Loo running Opium at that time and owning a restaurant in London. They are not one and the same person.

I also think the white wives article (Liverpool Echo - Friday 15 November 1929) fits in with the London Opium incident. One of the articles also says he was AKA Chay Tai (Chee). He was also in the company of Dang Chee, which sounds similar to the names of the Nutalie Chee's father Ah Dang Chee.

 

Our Sow Loo was registered as living for a few years with his wife at a small laundry at 2 Lower Breck Road. He lived until the end of the war and died during a very cold winter (according to George Reading his son-in-law). Apparently, he was taken to a Ritual Holding place in Chinatown when he died. Sow Loo is buried in Anfield Cemetery. He must have split with his wife prior to that time, as she went on to have more children to William Benson. His wife reported his death on his death certificate.

 

1921 Kelly's Trade Directory (Microfilm in Liverpool Records Office)
Loo, Foo Nam - Chinese Restaurant 12 Pitt Street (appears later as Foo Nam Low)

 

1925 Kelly's Trade Directory (Microfilm in Liverpool Records Office) 230 County Road, Walton. Sow Loo Laundry.

 

1928 Kelly's Trade Directory (Microfilm in Liverpool Records Office) 12 Pitt Street Low Foo Nam Restaurant

 

14 Pitt Street Lung Kwong Sing Grocer

 

Connected Addresses Christian Loo

22/11/1917 - 107 Rice Lane Eunice Loo
26/03/1922 - 230 County Road Harry Loo
20/06/1924 - 230 County Road Francis Loo
23/07/1927 - 107 Rice Lane

 

Liverpool Chinese Community


From the 1890s onwards, small numbers of Chinese began to set up businesses catering to the Chinese sailors working on Holt's lines and others. Some of these men married working class British women, resulting in a number of British-born Eurasian Chinese being born during World War II in Liverpool.

 

At the beginning of the War, there were up to 20,000 Chinese mariners in the city. In 1942, there was a strike for rights and pay equal to that of white mariners. The strike had lasted for 4 months. For the duration of the War these men were labelled as "troublemakers" by the shipowners and the British Government. At the end of the conflict, they were forbidden shore jobs, their pay was cut by two-thirds and they were offered only one-way voyages back to China. Hundreds of men were forced to leave their families, with many of their Eurasian children continuing to live in and around Liverpool's Chinatown to this day.
Passenger lists: