Asger, Mehdy Edward (1914-1940)

updated December 3, 2013.

Mehdy Edward Asger. Credit: Illio 1913.

Dentist.

DDS (Illio.) June 4, 1912, Editor of the Dental Department of Illio [Yearbook].

HONG KONG born, Eurasian [1]. Registered dental surgeon 1914-40 [2], one of the first eight dentists registered with the government following the regulation of the practice of dentistry on May 7, 1914 [3]. Private practitioner 1914-EOP, address: Room 205, Kayamally Building 加任亞厘行 nlt.1937-1940. Visiting dental surgeon, Government Civil Hospital 1917-1921 (or later) [4]. Resided at King Edward Hotel 1919. Dental Board (vice Edward Evan Jones) June 9, 1920. Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, interned (no information on wife) at New Asia Hotel; released ca.1942, moved to Macau, attended to refugees from Hong Kong at make-shift workshop. Returned to Hong Kong and resumed practice after the war at prewar address.

b.1880 - d. December 27, 1948 (died suddenly at Botanical Garden in the morning), bur. Hong Kong Cemetery, Happy Valley. Siblings: 1. Dr. A.E. Asger, Honorary Secretary, Craigengower Club 1900s; creator of the Hong Kong Cricket League 1903; resided in Scotland 1948. 2. sister [s.n.], resided in Hong Kong 1948.
m. [s.n.]

[1] Asger sounds Danish and Mehdy Arabic.
[2] The Dental Register 1941 is not available; it is unknown whether or not it actually exists.
[3] The first dental surgeons registered with the government following the enactment of the Dentistry Ordinance 1914: Mehdy Edward Asger, Arthur de Carvalho, Chaun Moon Hung 周夢熊, Edward Evan Jones, Frederick Howard Kew, Irvin Whiteley Kew, George Wiliam McKean, and Joseph Whittlesey Noble.
[4] The Government Civil Hospital introduced the Dental Department on July 4, 1917 and had Asger and Frederic Edward Kew, who was also an Eurasian, as visiting dental surgeon to attend three days in a week. The operating days were cut back to two in a week from 1918. Writings about the dental department in government reports stopped from 1922. It is unclear if someone decided not to write a bout it anymore, or it no longer existed after 1921.

Selected bibliography: C.C.C. Cricket Team Online [internet]. The China Mail, December 28, 1948. Find A Grave [internet]. Gwulo: Old Hong Kong, 1919 Ladies Directory. Hong Kong Government, Medical and Sanitary Reports for the Year 1917, p.35. Hong Kong Government, Medical Report for the Year 1922. The Hong Kong Government Gazette, June 11, 1920, #327; May 10, 1940, #537. The Illio: Class of 1913, the University of Illinois. Proceedings of the Board of Trustees for the Year 1912, University of Illinois, p.54.