RARE photographs uncovering the brutal realities of life and death in Shanghai during the early 1900s are being sold by a Lichfield auctioneer.
The collection of around 600 images were brought back from China by a Birmingham man who abandoned a safe job as a postman to become a detective 6,000 miles away.
Albert Henry Aiers joined Shanghai Municipal Police aged 18 in 1902 and worked his way up over 37 years before retiring with the honorary rank of Assistant Commissioner on 30th January 1939.
The Shanghai Municipal Police governed the settlement from 1854 to 1943. During his tenure, Albert – or Bert, as he was known – battled opium gangs, robbers and violent civil unrest and, latterly, witnessed the Sino-Japanese Hostilities of 1937.
Around 600 photographs capturing these pivotal moments in Shanghai’s history go under the hammer with Richard Winterton Auctioneers on 17th February.
Three albums containing more than 450 photographs and photo postcards, mostly from Shanghai 1900 to 1912, are valued at £4,000 to £5,000.
A further album from 1937 containing 144 photographs including shell damage and devastation from the Sino-Japanese hostilities, warships and rural scenes, is estimated at £1,00 to £1,500.
Auctioneer Richard Winterton said:
“What a life Albert Aiers lived – it was incredible to enrol in the Shanghai Police thousands of miles from home at just 18 years old.
“To then end up in dangerous investigations and murderous situations with robbers and opium gangs. If it was adventure he craved, he surely received it.
“Bert was clearly respected and admired by his colleagues and he was showered with gifts when he retired.
“The photographs really bring to life the dangerous streets of Shanghai in the early 1900s and we anticipate a lot of interest at auction.”
The collection has been sent to auction by Bert’s grandson Keith Franklin, 71, from Walsall.
He said:
“My grandfather was never a photographer so he must have been presented with these albums as souvenirs. Given the nature of many of the photographs, I would imagine they would have been taken by police officials.
“They really paint a vivid picture of what a dangerous place it was. He once told me it was totally lawless and you would have to walk around with a revolver.
“My brother was going through his loft recently and came across these four photo albums. They have no intrinsic emotional value to us and as they were just stuck up there doing nothing we thought it was time to offer them up to be appreciated by collectors.”
An album of pictures by police photographer AH Fong ‘The Sino-Japanese Hostilities 1937 Shanghai’ given to Bert previously sold with Richard Winterton Auctioneers in 2019 for £1,500.
Keith added:
“My grandfather brought quite a few trunkfuls back from China in 1939. My grandmother Ethel, née Mills, was a midwife in Small Heath. She came back home to Bordesley Green with the children in 1936 – the kids enjoyed it over there but by all accounts she was sick of living in such a lawless place.
“Because my grandmother did not like her time in Shanghai, she didn’t particularly want all these reminders.
“So when they were living in England she was paying everyday bills such as the butcher and the baker with all manner of treasures from China.”
The full catalogue will be available to view online a week before the sale via www.richardwinterton.co.uk.