When Captain Silvares Shot Mrs Silvares (& her lover) in Hong Kong, April 1924

Posted: October 22nd, 2025 | No Comments »

On April 12,1924 Captain Silvares of the Portuguese army in Macao shot his wife, Mrs Silvares and a certain Lieutenant Sequeira, a fellow Portuguese army officer, in Hong Kong. Here’s what happened….

Captain Silvares came across to Hong Kong from Macao. His wife had sailed across a couple of days before. They were to have a little weekend break from his army duties in the Portuguese colony in the neighbouring British colony. But somehow Silvares found out that his wife had had supper that evening with a colleague of his Lieutenant Costa Sequeira, in Hong Kong to catch a liner to Europe and redeployment back in Portugal.

The couple had gone out to the famously romantic spot of the Repulse Bay Hotel for supper and, who knows, perhaps more? Moonlight across the bay, the gentle lapping of waves, a decent wine list, some rather comfortable rooms…

Discovering them together Silvera was, not unsurprisingly angry. In the ensuing argument Silvera shot both his wife and Sequeira, wounding them requiring a trip to the hospital. Silvera was arrested by the Hong Kong Police. All pretty obvious you might think – Mrs Silversa indulging a little bit of exmarital fun with Lieutenant Sequeira; her hsuabnd catches her, flies into a rage and attempts to shoot the pair of them dead? Case closed.

But it seems the British wanted nothing to do with a Portuguese menage-a-trois or unseemly Latin crimes de coeur. Sequeira was released and allowed to board his liner to Europe and go about his business (his arm in a sling) while Captain and Mrs Silvares were escorted to the dock, put on the next ferry to Macao and told to not return to Hong Kong anytime soon. The police recorded it all as an unfortunate ‘accidental discharge’ of Silvare’s pistol in an enclosed space leading to some minor wounding. Potentially tricky inter-colony problem solved.

Yea, right…. I’ve not been able to find what eventually happened to the Silvares’, their marriage or Sequeira but I think we can safely assume ‘accidental discharge’ was the least of the rpoblems at repulse Bay that evening in 1924.

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