Career
MacEwen was head of the Holiday, Wise & Company, agent and member on the consulting committee of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Jardine, Matheson & Company and Union Insurance Society of Canton. He was also Vice-Chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce. He had advocated for the establishment of a municipal council, letting the local community to manage their own affairs, and also an unofficial majority in the Legislative Council for many years.
The suggestions were later taken by the Petitioners, consisting of many local business leaders, to the Colonial Office in 1893 and was eventually rejected by Lord Ripon, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies.
In 1902, he was elected Vice-President of the Hastings and Saint Leonards Conservative Association. He returned to England to took the office at Hollington in Sussex.
