A forgotten knight: Why Sun Yat-sen mentor Sir Kai Ho Kai died penniless and powerless 100 years ago

Tomorrow marks the centenary of the death of one of this city's most distinguished statesmen - the man who lent his name to the old international airport and the new Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, located at the same site.

Sir Kai Ho Kai was a surgeon, barrister and statesman, and a colossal public figure at the turn of the 20th century. He founded the Alice Memorial Hospital in 1887, protected Chinese interests in colonial Hong Kong as a member of the Legislative Council for 24 years, and is believed to have been the first Chinese man to marry an Englishwoman. He founded Hong Kong's first medical college and was instrumental in the formation of the University of Hong Kong.

In 1902, he was awarded the CMG (Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George) and a decade later was the first Chinese Hong Kong resident to be knighted. He was a teacher and mentor to Sun Yat-sen, a leading figure in the reform movement and a noted political essayist during the establishment of the first Chinese republic.

Tragically, at the height of his influence, this knight of the realm and loyal servant of Hong Kong was ruthlessly dumped by his colonial masters. He died suddenly a few months later, penniless, aged 55, long before the idea of an airport or cruise terminal bearing his name had been contemplated.

While the names of many hugely impressive Chinese establishment figures from Hong Kong's formative years adorn roads, public buildings and ships, it is a struggle to find much that commemorates Ho, apart from his tombstone in the Colonial Cemetery in Happy Valley. If he is remembered for anything, it is most commonly as the man who put the "Kai" in Kai Tak, though, on closer examination, even this association is more a case of accident than it is tribute.

If it were not for the fact that the old airport was built on a government site known as the Kai Tak Bund, which was a failed property development founded by Ho and his son-in-law, Au Tak, on newly reclaimed land, his name would have disappeared from the streets of Hong Kong altogether.

terminal is an expansive public park and, on one sunny day, visitors stroll around the ornate gardens, enjoying the views south across Kowloon Bay.