CHAPTER 30

A Man Beset by Demons: Lock Ah Tam

1926

Where love had been, there was now merciless slaughter …

ome crimes in the murder casebooks read like fables; they resonate with that sense of fate and tragedy that marks some of the great literature of the world. Sometimes these tales concern men who have found wealth or celebrity and then fallen to ruin and failure. Others are about the rise and fall of power. But some are strongly human stories with possibilities for speculation about ‘blame’ and cause’ when the happiness and fulfilment turn to disaster and pain. The story of Loch Ah Tam has this quality of a parable, a rise and a fall, and with a flaw in him that may have been a cause we can identify.

Tam was at first a desk clerk in a shipping office, having been born in Canton. In his early twenties he settled to work on land rather than at sea and he prospered. He had special gifts of charm, communication and efficiency and he did so well that by 1907 he had reached a very high status indeed – no less a person than the main man with the European union for Chinese stevedores, and also a major figure in the Chinese Republican Society, known properly as the Kock Man Tong. He acquired wealth and social status, settling in an old house in Birkenhead with his Welsh wife Catherine. They had three children: Lock Ling, Doris and Cecilia. He was more than a happy family man, however. Tam was a character in the city, a known ‘good soul’ who enjoyed talk, entertainment and caring for the poor who crossed his path. He was well-known for giving coins to poor children.

Our fable is fine so far: a portrait of a man with many reasons to be happy and content. He had a successful public life and a private family life that gave him immense pleasure. Then came the first sign that there might be a dark shadow over him and it led to an event that remains a debatable issue to this day when the story is told. He took control of a club which was intended as a safe and cushioned environment for Chinese sailors coming to the city. This Chinese Progress Club involved Tam in the kind of responsibility that can lead to stress, and it couldn’t have been more stressful than the night when a rowdy bunch of Russian sailors burst in looking for trouble. Tam stood up to them and, for his courage, he was given a heavy blow on the head with a billiard cue.