Also known as Wong Gye and Charles Wong Gye

Born: 1839/1840 (Canton (Guangzhou), China)
Father: Wong Hung (a merchant) Mother: Leong Sum

Died: 16 May, 1911 (Clyde, New Zealand)

Married: Harriet Asquith 6 May, 1869 (Melbourne, Australia)

Children: Henry Walter WONG GYE, Albert Ernest WONG GYE, Arthur WONG GYE, Charles StPatrick WONG GYE, Elizabeth Emma WONG GYE, William WONG GYE, Susan WONG GYE, George WONG GYE, Robert WONG GYE, Edmund Evelyn WONG GYE, Ethel Rose WONG GYE, Amy Iris WONG GYE, Francis Gordon WONG GYE, Amelia Harriet (Milly) WONG GYE

Nothing is known of Wong Gye's early life. His marriage certificate states his occupation as storekeeper and his address as 80 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, in the heart of Melbourne's Chinatown. He is said to have obtained a university education in Australia and was fluent in English, French and Mandarin. He married eighteen year old, Harriet Asquith, on the 6th of May, 1869 at the home of Harriet's parents in Wellington Street, Richmond.

By the late 1870's Wong Gye and his wife Harriet and five small children had settled in Dunedin, New Zealand, where he worked as a storekeeper. The Department of Justice had employed a Chinese interpreter, John Alloo, for liaison with the Chinese miners on the goldfields. As it was intended to dispense with Alloo's services as an interpreter, Superintendent T.K. Weldon, in charge of the Otago police, was authorised by the premier to swear him in as a constable from 1 July 1877. However, Alloo was forced by ill health to resign in October.

Weldon then gained the approval of William Moule, commissioner of the newly formed New Zealand Constabulary Force, to employ Wong Gye as Alloo's replacement from 1 December 1877. Wong Gye had requested the appointment in an application supported by 18 Dunedin merchants. Weldon was authorised to pay him £50 per annum, plus a travel allowance, as a part-time member of the police force. He was to be a district constable based at Clyde, and was to continue in Alloo's role as an interpreter as well as carrying out what policing functions were required of him. Wong Gye was mainly responsible for policing the Chinese community but also had a general authority. He investigated such issues as the validity of miner's rights and gambling among the Chinese. In 1882, he gained a pay rise of £10, being described by the commissioner of New Zealand Constabulary Force as having carried out a good deal of responsible work.

Later reports on Wong Gye's work describe him as being 'well conducted', but in 1889 his commanding officer recorded that he was reportedly 'open to bribery' and in 1890 he was dismissed from the police. In his role as an interpreter he was alleged to have interfered with the evidence of a Chinese witness in a court hearing. Wong Gye petitioned in vain for an inquiry and compensation. To no avail.

Nothing is known of how Wong Gye earned his living following his dismissal, though there is some suggestion that he may have run a market garden in Clyde. He and Harriet continued to live there until his death from pneumonia on the 16 May, 1911 at the age of 72; he was survived by his wife and 12 of his children.

Taken in part from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume 2, Wellington, Department of Internal Affairs, 1993. p.588