Career record: testimonials, passport, obituaries; lectures: 'China at the fall of the Manchu Dynasty'; 'An Outpost of Empire: Hong Kong'; 'Piracy of SS HACHING'; 'Piracy of the British Steamer TUNG CHOW'; 'Piracy Ancient and Modern'; 'BBC 1937: The Lower Yangtsze Kiang River.' Two black covered notebooks and one maroon covered containing navigational notes and questions on navigation. Notebook, entitled, 'Yang-tse Kiang' containing diagrams and notes for pilotage. A volume containing newspaper cuttings and some correspondence. Dictated notes concerning episodes in life. A notebook of a journey four hundred miles into the interior of China, 1909.

Printed items: 'League of Nations: Appeal by the Chinese Government; Report of the Commission of Enquiry' 1932; 'The Woosung-Hankow Pilot Association Ltd- Memorandum and Articles of Association'; 'China Coast Officers Guilde and Marine Engineers Guilde of China: Handbook 1933-1935'; 'THe Woosung-Hankow Pilot Association Ltd- Report of Annual General Meeting, 1920'; 'Map of China, 1911'; 'Picturesque Hongkong' by R. C. Hurley, 1925; 'The China Navigation Co. Ltd. Conditions for Service for Navigating and Engineer Officers'; 'South Wales Navigation School Card.'

Photographs of the internment of the German High Seas Fleet, 1918, with list.

Flag remnant (fragile textile) and a postcard of watertower. Copies of photographs held with the Historic Photographs Department, includes a photograph of Tom Turnbull Laurenson.

Papers of John T Laurenson, Fl. 1845-1876: notebook containing notes from a lecture on a year in the Arctic Circle and an extract from a journal kept on board the barque COTHERSTONE, 22 November 1876.

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Administrative / biographical background
Laurenson began his career at sea with an apprenticeship served in the MITREDALE, he later went from sail to steam and until 1902, upon when he obtained his masters' certificate, he served with Messrs. Glover Bros of London as second and chief officer. He obtained the rank of acting master in 1909 with Messrs. Butterfield and Swire and later started the Woosung-Hankow Pilots' Association. Upon the outbreak of World War One, Laurenson entered into the Navy and was gazetted sub-lieutenant in December 1914, being commissioned to the VERNON. He was promoted to lieutenant-in-command in June 1915 and appointed leader of the 47th Division of Patrols. He was decorated by King George V at Buckingham Palace with the Distinguished Serivce Cross (DSC) for his services rendered in the North Sea. In May 1918 he was in command of the 1st Division Cromarty Minesweepers and in June 1919 was promoted acting-lieutenant-commander for special meritorious service during the war. He returned to Hong Kong in 1919 and became secretary if the China Officers' Guild which represented the British Merchant Navy to the Hong Kong Government. In 1931 he was appointed to the magistracy in Hong Kong, and for twelve years he was vice-chairman of the Merchant Navy Officers' Federation.