Cheung Koon Fu

Biography

Cheung Koon Fu was born in Sha Lo Tung, Tai Po in 1921. His family were indigenous Hakka people who have settled in the New Territories for more than 300 years. His father was a mining engineer who was employed by foreigners in mine near Lin Ma Hang and Shing Mun Reservoir. During his childhood, he studied in Sha Lo Tung Primary School and later was sent by his father to learn English in Tsim Sha Tsui. The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong was a period of financial difficulties for his family. In 1943, he joined the Sha Tau Kok squadron of East River Column’s Hong Kong-Kowloon Independent Battalion, and began to work as a liaison officer. In 1946, he entered the police force. Cheung Koon Fu later joined the Village Police Patrol (commonly known as "pangolin") established by the New Territories’ Superintendent of Police, and was responsible for the inspection and maintenance of law and order in the villages. A few years later, he became a police constable after his superior got a different job posting. He had stationed in Tai Po, Sheung Shui, Lok Ma Chau, Sha Tau Kok, Ta Kwu Leng, Yuen Long and other police stations until he retired 1969. In the early 1970s, he went to The Netherlands for three years to work as manager of a gambling house in Chinatown in Amsterdam. After returning to Hong Kong, he sold his ancestral house to a developer in Sha Lo Tung and moved to Tai Po Market since.