Lee Yuk Wang papers and his collection on Lingnan University

Lee Yuk Wang, Lingnan alumni of Class 1943, was born on 3 May 1919 in Jiujiang, Nanhai, China. The character “Wang” (宏) was originally written with a Chinese radical meaning “water” on the left side (浤), which was later dropped as people often mispronounced the word.

Lee moved to Hong Kong with his family when he was a child. He had received private tuition at home for a year before entering The Hong Kong Branch School of Lingnan University on Stubbs Road in 1928. Upon graduation from primary school, he was admitted into the Lingnan-Affiliated Middle School in Guangzhou. Just before the Japanese took over Guangzhou during their invasion in 1937, Lee shepherded other Lingnan students back to Hong Kong and resumed classes at Liang Yuan on 18½ miles, Castle Peak Road. In September 1939, he entered the Department of Chemistry at Lingnan University, which had then relocated to Hong Kong and held its classes in a borrowed campus on the site of the University of Hong Kong. During his university, he became the president of Lingnan Students’ Self-Government Association (or the Student Union). Subsequent to the fall of Hong Kong during the Second World War, Lingnan was suspended. Lee, together with other students and staff, had to flee Hong Kong, during which time he assisted Dr. Lee Ying Lam, the President of Lingnan University, with the plan to reopen Lingnan in Shaoguan. One of Lee’s missions was to stow away from Shaoguan to Macau and Hong Kong in 1942, bringing with him a letter prepared by President Lee Ying Lam and deliver it to Dr. Chu Yu-kwang [Registrar], Dr. Chuang Chai-hsuan [Dean of College of Arts], Mr. Tse Chiu-kit [Operation Officer], and Yeung Chung-Kwong [Head Teacher, Lingnan-affiliated Middle School]. This letter is a highlight in this special collection of Lingnan’s records.

Since Lingnan did not set up a Chemistry department after it reopened, Lee undertook chemistry study at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou as a transient student. On recommendation by Dr. Lee Ying Lam, he began working in a chemical factory in Guilin established by Mr. Lin Yee Min, Council Member of Lingnan University. Later on, he went to Hong Kong and was engaged in industrial chemicals trading business with paint factories. He continued to take part in the affairs of the Lingnan University Alumni Association (Hong Kong), and had acted as Vice Chairman and [Senior Director]. From 1992 to 1997, he was the Chief Editor of the Lingnan Newsletters, to which he contributed a substantial number of articles himself.

李毓宏，原名「毓浤」，1919年5月3日於南海九江出生，原本名字中的「浤」字因常被誤讀，故後來改成「毓宏」。

李毓宏學長自幼隨家人移居香港，曾在家中讀了一年俗稱「扑扑齋」的私塾，於1928年入讀香港司徒拔道嶺南分校，由小學開始至大學皆就讀於嶺南。小學畢業後升讀廣州嶺南附中，1937年廣州淪陷前，曾帶領其他嶺南學生一同回到香港，於青山道十八咪半「梁園」復課。至1939年9月，入讀當時已遷校香港、借用香港大學校舍上課的嶺南大學化學系，期間出任嶺南學生自治總會主席。其後香港淪陷，嶺南亦停課，李學長與其他師生逃難之際，曾在韶關協助李應林校長處理復校事宜，當中包括於1942年將李校長寫給教務長朱有光、文學院院長莊澤宣、總務長謝昭杰和附中主任楊重光的信件，從韶關偷渡到澳門及香港送交四人，此信件亦為此特藏的重點嶺南文獻。

嶺南復課後，因沒開設化學系，故借讀於廣州中山大學，再經李應林校長推薦，到了由嶺南校董林逸民在桂林開設的化工廠工作，之後輾轉到了香港從事漆廠及化工原料相關的生意。於香港期間，續有參與嶺南香港同學會的事務，曾任副主席及資深理事，於1992至1997年期間擔任《嶺南通訊》總編輯，並執筆撰寫多篇文章。