Photographs and memories: The Lay family

The port of Jemulpo circa 1910s. The Japanese foreign settlement is on the left and the Chinese foreign settlement is on the right. Robert Neff Collection

Family albums and scrapbooks are treasure chests filled with memories — good and bad. Old photographs, their edges curled with age and humidity, inspire curiosity, but unfortunately the questions as to the identities of the people in the pictures and their locations are often left unanswered due to the carelessness of the compiler who neglected to annotate them. Perhaps they thought they could do it later or just assumed they would always remember the information. Memories are often flawed — especially with age — and the younger generations, self-absorbed with their own lives, are not interested in the anecdotes of the past.

This is the 600th article of this series and I thought it would be fitting to examine one of my favorite scrapbooks — one kept by Kate Lay in the mid-1890s.

The Lay family had a long history in Korea. Kate’s older brother, William George Lay, arrived in Korea in 1886 to serve with the Korean Imperial Customs Service in Fusan (modern Busan) as an assistant. We don’t know much about his two-year stay in that port as he is rarely mentioned — mainly in regional directories. His younger brother, Arthur G. Hyde, was stationed at the British Legation in Tokyo and, judging from Kate’s scrapbook, she was there with him from 1887 until about 1902. I assume he wrote letters to them, but unfortunately I have not been able to find any of them.

The Wolter children in 1903. Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection

For the Lay family, 1902 was a year of change. Kate married a 31-year-old Englishman named Arnold Hotson in Shanghai. It seems Kate was somewhat evasive about her age — she chose to avoid answering it (she was about a month shy of 31) merely declaring herself a spinster.

As for Arthur, he and his family (his wife, Marion, and their 2-year-old son, Arthur C.) were transferred to Jemulpo in late 1902 where he served for about 10 years. In his book ("Four Generations in China, Japan and Korea"), Arthur C. Lay provides an interesting but sparse account of life in Korea. According to him, when the Russo-Japanese War began in Jemulpo in February 1904, the British consulate was located on a hill and “had a ringside seat” for this opening engagement. However, he and his younger sister, Helen, were not able to watch it as they were “hustled to a back room while all the windows of [the consulate] shook with the booming of the guns.”

He does state, however, that Jemulpo was wonderfully cosmopolitan and in the manner of an “Old China Treaty Port.” The consulate was “surrounded by a big garden on the edge of Chinatown” and the children were often treated to the wonders of the Chinese expat community.

“On certain festival days processions of long embroidered snakes, in the entrails of which were hidden many heads visible, used to trail through our garden, to the accompaniment of music, beating of gongs, and much merriment, a pleasing pageant of China enjoyed by all.”

The American and British legations in Jeongdong, Seoul, circa 1900s. Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection

The staff at the consulate consisted of Chinese, Korean and Japanese. The children’s nanny was a Japanese woman who stayed with the family for almost 12 years and even traveled to Scotland with them. The cook was also Japanese. The gardener and most of the house servants were Chinese, and the messengers and the chair-bearers (palanquin and jinricksha men) were all Koreans.

The European-American expat community was also a meld of nationalities. Woo Li-tang, who came to Korea in 1883 as a member of the Imperial Customs Service, was a fine example of this. He had a Spanish wife (some sources claim she was a ballet dancer in France) and two adopted children — one Russian and the other Japanese. They lived in a beautiful house that had luxurious furniture and was surrounded by gardens.

Carl Wolter, a German merchant prince, “had a castle on a hill, and his relatives by marriage, another Teuton-Scottish union had another schloss on an adjoining summit.” The Americans tended to live a quieter lifestyle with less pretentious homes. Walter Townsend, one of the earliest businessmen, lived rather quietly with his Japanese wife, his son and his stepdaughter.

The British Legation in the early 1900s. A.C. Hyde Lay, “Four Generations in China, Japan and Korea.”

As for the British, according to Lay, “We ourselves were almost embarrassingly unique in being straight cut amid so much blended tobacco.”

Although Lay paints the foreign community as a cosmopolitan utopia where each nationality co-existed peacefully, there were problems — as evidenced by the local newspapers and magazines. However, the real challenge to Jemulpo’s peace did not originate in the Land of the Morning Calm — it began in Europe with the start of World War I. It was in 1914, Lay explained, “when the German voice at the Chemulpo Club bar, were it was becoming rather raucous, was muted.”

Consul Lay was a very avid tennis player and participated in the good-natured rivalry between Chemulpo and Seoul. For the Western expat community, tennis was one of the most popular sports, and there were even tennis courts at the gold mining concessions in northern Korea.

In addition to tennis, Consul Lay also enjoyed socializing. In 1909, the family spent several months in Seoul and they made quite an impression. According to the local English-language newspaper:

“Yesterday Mr. Arthur Hyde Lay left Seoul to resume his duty as British Consul at [Jemulpo]. Mr. Lay has been acting Consul General here for many months and has won the golden opinion of all who have had the pleasure of coming in contact with him on account of his great ability, courtesy and tact. The departure of this popular diplomat and of Mrs. Lay, one of the most charming and cultured of hostesses, will leave a void in the social life of the Korean capital. One consolation is that they will reside in a place not far from here, so that all of us will have chances of seeing them frequently.”

An unidentified garden party — presumed to be in Japan — in 1896 / Robert Neff Collection

Just over four years later, in January 1914, the family returned to Seoul when Consul Lay was promoted to consul general. But, according to his son, when it came to entertaining, his mother was the real consul general. “At the Empire Day garden parties she was the presiding genius.”

It is a shame that in their son’s book, the section about Korea is so sparse — especially considering the family spent about a quarter century in Jemulpo and Seoul. While the section about Seoul is poetic, it is extremely anemic:

“Seoul is a glittering prospect of mountains and palaces, with mushroom-roofed cottages on which red pepper laid out to dry on them presents a delightful Turkish-carpet effect seen from a hill-top, mingled with blue smoke rising from thousands of kitchen fires as the evening meal is being prepared towards dusk.”

An unidentified garden party in 1896 / Robert Neff Collection

The palaces, royal tombs, White Buddha, treks along the old city wall and the Han River were all “rich with charm,” but apparently not enough to warrant descriptions. The number of accounts of Korea as seen through the eyes of children is surprisingly low.

In 1927, Consul General Lay retired and left Korea. He returned to Scotland and bought a house he rechristened “Korea House” in honor of the land where “he [had] spent his best and happiest years.”

Kate Lay saved the letterhead emblems of various visiting warships in the 1890s. Robert Neff Collection

Many years ago, I purchased Kate’s scrapbook hoping it contained pictures of Korea. Unfortunately, it didn’t. I don’t even know if she ever visited her brother in Korea. I assumed she did — after all, Japan and China are relatively nearby — but I cannot find any references to her visiting the peninsula.

While her scrapbook lacks pictures of the Land of the Morning Calm, it does have historical connections. The book is filled with pictures and memorabilia of American, Russian, German, Chinese, Japanese and British warships — many of which visited Korea. There are even pictures of HMS Edgar and its crew — prior to the dreadful accident that claimed so many lives at Jemulpo in November 1895.

It seems somewhat ironic that Kate was careful to provide the names of most the warships and even recorded the information of an earthquake and tsunami in Japan, but she failed to identify anyone at the garden parties or the dates.

My sincere appreciation to Diane Nars for her assistance and for allowing me to use her images. I would also like to wish her a very happy birthday.

A picture of Kobe, Japan, in Kate Lay’s scrapbook in 1896 / Robert Neff Collection

The aftermath of a tsunami in Japan in 1896 / Robert Neff Collection

Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.