Rosary Church, Chatham Road, the oldest Catholic Church on the Kowloon Peninsula, was founded a century ago. Fr. Giovanni M. Spada (1867 -1950), recorded that at the time of the Boxer Uprising in 1900, Great Britain had mobilized several regiments to Hong Kong to be stationed in Kowloon.

Fr. Spada secured the loan of the Canossian missionary premises and offered mass at 8a.m. on Sundays to serve the needs of the Catholic military and lay people. As Tsim Sha Tsui district expanded and the population increased, a small Church – accommodating 800 people - was built in 1901.

Despite the return of the regiments to India in 1902, it soon became obvious that the small Church could not meet the local needs as the expatriates, living in Tsim Sha Tsui – especially the Portuguese community, had greatly increased.