Fonds 5 - Victor Othello dos Remedios fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Victor Othello dos Remedios fonds

General material designation

  • Graphic material
  • Textual record

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Records created and received by Victor Othello dos Remedios

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  • Source of title proper: Title based on provenance of fonds

Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

5

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Physical description area

Physical description

2 cm of textual records
ca. 100 photographs : b&w
5 objects

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1893-1981)

Biographical history

Victor Othello dos Remedios was born in Macau in 1893. He spent most of his life in Shanghai, China until 1951. He was trained as an accountant and worked for most of his adult years at the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank of Commerce and at an American-owned pulp and paper mill. He married his first wife at the age of twenty-four and had a son who developed polio and was sent to Switzerland for schooling and health care. He married again at about the age of forty and had a daughter in 1938. At age fourteen he registered in the Shanghai Volunteer Corps and served until 1942 when war broke out. He took photographs of two bombing incidents in Shanghai in the 30s as a member of the Corps. In 1942, Victor along with his wife Valentina and daughter Elizabeth were interned at one of many of the camps set up by the occupying Japanese forces in Shanghai for expatriates. They were released in April 1945 and had no place to live as their house was occupied by Korean allies of the Japanese, so they remained for another year in the camp.
The family eventually repossessed their home and Victor resumed work at his previous job as a manager of the pulp and paper mill. With the impending threat of invasion by the recently formed Red Army, his wife and daughter were sent to Hong Kong to live with relatives. Victor stayed in Shanghai until he had trained a Chinese replacement to manage the mill. In 1950, he was able to join his family and after a short stay in Hong Kong the family immigrated to Canada. In 1981, Victor passed away in a care facility in Victoria, BC. As of March 2014, his wife Valentina still lives in Victoria.

Custodial history

Scope and content

Fonds consists of photographs that mainly document bombings in Shanghai by military forces from Japan in 1937. It is likely that the photographs of two bombing incidents were taken when Victor was a member of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps. The images show the devastation caused by the bombings including streetscapes and details of blown out buildings and dismembered casualties. Other photographs at the beginning of the album are postcards of Shanghai in its heyday before the bombings. Textual documents are from the 1930s and 1940s and include registration cards, a birthday card, a passport as well as identification cards of Victor, Valentina and Elizabeth.

Notes area

Physical condition

Album is beginning to become in fragile condition. Some mirroring on some photographs.

Immediate source of acquisition

The records were donated to the Museum of Anthropology by Elizabeth Carefoot

Arrangement

Records have been kept in original order.

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Script of material

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Restrictions on access

Many images contain scenes that some researchers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Accruals

Accruals include accession #2014-2 and #2014-05. No other accruals expected.

General note

The biographical sketch is based on the accompanying biography written by Victor’s daughter Elizabeth, March 14, 2014.

Physical description

Includes a 5 cm thick leather-bound photo album that is 29 cm wide by 22 cm high, with 101 photographs and some newspaper clippings. Other materials included in the fonds are a medal that Victor received as a member of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, a red armband, a 100 yen bill in Japanese currency, and miscellaneous ID cards for Victor and his wife.

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Updated May 2016 by Katie Ferrante

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physical storage

  • Box: Victor Othello dos Remedios fonds 1