Lee Foo

Biography

Born in 1929 in Hong Kong, Lee Foo belongs to the 22nd generation of the Lee Clan in Nga Tsin Wai and is the manager of the second branch of Lee Shing Kui Tso. His grandfather made a living by making hemp ropes for ships, his father was a mechanic working as a supervisor at an American firm, while his two uncles (second and third sons of his grandfather) were sailors. The family owned several ancestral houses on First Lane and was well-off before WWII. Lee had studied at Lung Tsun School and Ng Clan Ancestral Hall School during his primary school years, until Hong Kong was taken by the Japanese when he was in Primary Five. Soon after that, he became an apprentice at a steel factory in To Kwa Wan. His entire family moved into Model Village in Kowloon Tong during Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. When the war was over, they returned to Nga Tsin Wai and rebuilt their ancestral houses. In 1947, he went to work at the navy’s dockyard. He was later employed by the Fire Services Department in 1958 and moved up the ranks to become Principal Fireman at the time he retired in 1987. Lee Foo got married in 1955 and moved out of Nga Tsin Wai in 1967 to the Fire Services Department’s married quarters in Ngau Chi Wan. At the end of the 1970s, he became Nga Tsin Wai’s headman and served on the post for about 10 years, during which time he had handled affairs regarding the acquisition of the village. In addition, he has been a long-time representative of the Lee Clan in Sam Sing Tso, managing the Sam Sing Tso’s ancestral houses and Tin Hau Temple alongside the Ngs and the Chans.