J.P. Braga, 1887-1944

Component identifier:

Series 13

Content Summary:

José Pedro Braga, father of J.M. Braga, was born in Hong Kong on 3 August 1871, youngest son of Vicente Emilio and Carolina Maria Braga. Vicente Braga moved to Japan to work as the Chief Accountant at the Imperial Mint, Osaka, when J.P. Braga was an infant. J.P. Braga was brought up in the household of his maternal grandfather, Delfino Noronha.

J.P. Braga attended St Joseph's College in Hong Kong and St Xavier's College and Roberts College in Calcutta, where he received the College's Gold Medal in 1889. He then returned to Hong Kong, where he worked at his grandfather's printing business, Noronha Co, until 1900. During this time he became active in public affairs and began his writing career. In 1895, his book The rights of aliens in Hongkong was published. On 5 May 1895 he married Olive Pauline Pollard, who was born in 1870 in Launceston, Tasmania, and had been a member of the Pollard Liliputian Opera Company. They had 13 children.

J.P. Braga was manager of the Hongkong Telegraph from 1902 to 1910. He became the Hong Kong agent of Reuter's news agency from 1906 to 1931. From 1910 he ran his own printing business, J.P. Braga Co, becoming a leader of the Portuguese community in Hong Kong. He was President of Club Lusitano and Patron of the Portuguese Company of the Hong Kong Volunteers. He was appointed Comendador da Ordem de Cristo (Commander of the Order of Christ) in recognition of his work on the behalf of the Macau government in resolving a border dispute with China. From 1929 to 1937 J.P. Braga served as the first Portuguese member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, and in 1935 he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire. In 1941, his book Portuguese pioneering: a hundred years of Hong Kong was published as part of the colony's centenary commemorations. According to Stuart Braga, "This book was the culmination of what had been a 50 year struggle to assert for his community equality of rights and equality of opportunity in a social, commercial and legal environment not always conducive to it."

In December 1941, Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese, and in June 1942 J.P. Braga sought refuge in Macau, living with J.M. Braga until his death on 12 February 1944.

This series includes correspondence, draft material, notebooks, memoranda, legal documents printed material, certificates and other papers. There are three subseries: a sequence of personal documents and papers, followed by several issues of J.P. Braga's journal Odds and Ends, and finishing with draft material for his book The Portuguese in Hongkong and China (1944).

Further correspondence and other papers relating to J.P. Braga are included in Series 2, 4 and 8. Articles relating to J.P. Braga's public life feature in the newspaper cuttings albums in Subseries 14.1.

[11 files]

Immediate source of acquisition:

The bulk of the Braga Collection (including manuscripts, pictures, maps, newspapers, serials, periodicals, monographs and ephemera) was purchased from J.M. Braga in 1966. The component held in the Manuscript Collection at MS 4300 appears to have been formally accessioned as the J.M. Braga Papers in 1975. Several small additions have been made since the original instalment of papers was received. Most of these additions were transfers to the Manuscripts Collection from other collection areas, including a file of newspaper cuttings in May 1975, a set of microfilm reels in 1984, a file of manuscript material in 1985, lists of the Braga Collection in 1994, and two files of assorted printed material and other papers in 2009. As well, several small additions have been made by members of the Braga family. In 1992, various Braga family members donated a copy of the eulogy and order of service for Augusta Braga's memorial service, and in 2002 Angela Braga donated photographs of medals and decorations awarded to J.P. Braga, together with photocopies of early writings of J.M. Braga and eulogies for J.M. Braga and his grandson Michael Braga.

Subjects:

History

Names:

Braga, J.M. (José Maria)

Contents

Access and use