On another day

FOR the first 50 years of Hong Kong's existence as a colony, all the members of the Executive Council were either government officials or military men. In October 1896 it was announced that Catchick Paul Chater and James Jardine Bell-Irving were to be appointed as the first two unofficial members of Exco.

Mr Chater was born in Calcutta and was descended from a family of Armenian merchant princes. Mr Bell-Irving was a Scottish laird. His mother was the niece of William Jardine, the founder of Jardine, Matheson & Co.

They were both members of the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club and Mr Chater was the chairman from 1892 to 1926.

Mr Chater and Mr Bell-Irving's brother John founded Hong Kong Land and developed 20 hectares of reclaimed land in Central district. The Mandarin Hotel, Prince's Building, the Hong Kong Club, Alexandra House and the Legislative Council Building all stand on the land they reclaimed. They also founded the Hong Kong Electric Co.

Mr Chater was the chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Co and the Bell-Irvings were taipans of Jardines. Both brothers served a term as chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank.

Whoever said that 'power in Hong Kong resides in the Jockey Club, Jardine and Matheson, the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the Governor - in that order', must have had the unholy alliance of Mr Chater and Bell-Irving brothers in mind.

The brothers returned to Scotland; but Mr Chater was knighted and stayed on in Hong Kong until his death in 1926. He left a magnificent collection of paintings and a monstrous Victorian mansion, called Marble Hall, to the people of Hong Kong.

Most of the Chater Collection vanished during the war and Marble Hall caught fire and burned down in 1946. Chater Garden, Chater Road and Catchick Street are named after him. In his lifetime he was known as the 'grand old man of Hong Kong'.