Come to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum at 4.00pm on Saturday February 24 and hear Patricia O’Sullivan tell the little-known story of the Hong Kong Naval Dockyard Police Force.

The history of the force doesn’t suffer so much from lost documentation as from the lack of any in the first place. At some point in the 1850s it emerged by default, to guard the Hong Kong stores and workshops of the Royal Navy, and during the next 50 years it only surfaces when a problem – usually with discipline – occurs.

Finding that one of the Irishmen she was researching was the second inspector in this force, Patricia has delved back into all the contemporary sources to put together a picture of this shadowy police force, its work and that of the dockyards it protected.

The talk is free but the usual museum entry fee applies (HK$30 for adults). Address: Pier 8, Central, Hong Kong.