Shanghai, Shanghai Volunteer Corps (SVC), ca. 1900

Ferdinand Bernard (Frits) s'Jacob (1872-1941) was one of the founders of the company which employed Charles Gesner van der Voort, Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC). Frits s'Jacob is first row left in the group photo.

resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1880-2000/lemmata/bwn2/jacob:
Born from an originally Normandy family, his father worked in the Netherlands East Indies and the Netherlands. At the age of 19, Frits s'Jacob went to London to learn the trading profession. Early 1897 he started in Hong Kong as a merchant and in 1898 he went to Shanghai. [There is a detailed description of his activities in Shanghai in the 1898 financial statements of the joint venture "Hotz, s'Jacob & Co.", Kien family archives].

1 October 1903, he established Holland-China Handelscompagnie (HCHC), together with J.H. Collignon and S.J.R. de Monchy jr. Willem Kien became the company's representative in Shanghai [for the official deed, please see www.flickr.com/photos/161392673@N02/40003353243/in/datepo...}

After leaving HCHC in 1917, in 1918 he became Trade Representative for the Netherlands in London, which he continued to be until his death in 1941.
Frits Kien, being sent from Shanghai to London in 1940 after the outbreak of war in the Netherlands, met with Frits s'Jacob.

“I had great support from the introduction letter by the Dutch Trade Representative in London. This Trade Representative had started in Shanghai in 1898 and had started our firm. When I visited him in his office he said to me: “I still have a special place in my heart for the firm which you work for. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need assistance with anything, and we’ll see what needs to be done.””

After his death in 1941, E.D. van Walree wrote an In memoriam about Frits s'Jacob, for the Dutch-Chinese Society (Nederlandsch-Chineesche Vereeniging, NCV), of which Willem Kien was an active member. It has an interesting detail about Frits s'Jacob during the Boxer rebellion, which I believe the above photo refers to.
"Among his best friends in London were the well-known China expert J.O.P. Bland, former Secretary of the Shanghai Municipality, and Baron de Cartier de Marchienne, Belgian Ambassador, with whom s'Jacob served during the Boxer rebellion in 1900 in the Shanghai Volunteer Corps." [SVC]

In 1963, Willem Kien gave an interview about his years in China and the Boxer rebellion. Notes from the interview were sent to him.
"Colonel Kramer, an 'old salt' like Tromp or De Ruyter, took charge of the ca. 3,000 volunteers, foreigners; while Mr. Wehrou, director of the Russo-Chinese Bank, was the commander of the contingent of French volunteers, which included the Dutch."

In French, the SVC was named "Le Corps des Volontaires de Changhai" (cn.ambafrance.org/La-Gazette-de-Changhai-Une-chronique-hi...)

Security in the Concession was maintained by the garde municipale. Just as the British employed a large number of Indian police in the International Settlement, the French deployed a large number of personnel from its nearby colony of Annam. A militia, the corps de volontaires, was first raised in the 1850s to protect the Concession during the Taiping Rebellion. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_French_Concession)

Courtesy Kien family archives, De Jong family archives

Taken in: 中國 / 上海直辖市 / 上海市 / Ni Cheng Qiao (show map)

Taken on: January 1, 1900

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Camera: Canon EOS 550D, f/4.0, 1/30 sec, 25mm, ISO 1250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 550D
Aperture:	f/4.0
Exposure Time:	0.033 sec (1/30)
Focal Length:	25mm
ISO:	1250
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384
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