Beyond and Under Victoria’s Sway

The author of ‘Matilda’, the history, published in the 1980s, of the Matilda Hospital in Hong Kong, and of Matilda Sharp to whom the hospital was dedicated, Joyce Stevens Smith was a sister in the hospital for many years. She has now written a fascinating book which focuses more on the lives of Matilda and Granville Sharp.

In ‘Beyond and Under – Victoria’s Sway’, she gives insights to, and chronicles the life and adventures of, the Sharps who lived as comfortable a life in Hong Kong as it was possible between their arrival in 1858 until Matilda’s death in 1893. Mrs Sharp was an indomitable person who had an exploring spirit and constant interest; as her husband’s wealth increased, their prominence and influence in Hong Kong grew. The book also looks at the lives of other members of the family who were living in Norfolk and in Australia: the Sharps travelled extensively and adventurously. It is an interesting book about a burgeoning, courageous and restless Victorian family – a way of life which was initially fairly basic and not without its risks and finished off with considerable wealth and unending activity in the Hong Kong of the second half of the 19th Century.