Francis Chomley

Background

Cholmey was the oldest son of Rev. Francis Chomley (1784-1847), Rural Dean of County Wicklow and his first wife, Magdalene (Maud) Hanna (1790-1827).

Education

Trinity College.

Career

He entered Trinity College, Dublin in Trinity Term 1838 to study law. His interest in China was due to connections of his step mother's (Mary Elizabeth Chomley née Griffith) father, Richard Griffith M.P. of Millicent House, Clane, co Kildare, who had retired from trading in the East Indies and China in 1786, and other family members. He also acted as consul for the Kingdom of Sardinia during the absence of John Dent in 1861.

In 1862 his younger half brother, Charles Albert Chomley (aged 21) had "learnt office", learning about the China trade with Sir James Turing (Dent & Co European partner) in Rotterdam, and was travelling with Edward Turing (aged 19), youngest son of Sir James, when they were both accidentally drowned in the Lake Neuchâtel on 1 June 1862.

Francis chaired the provisional committee's first meeting, held on 6 August 1864 and was elected the first chairman of the board of the bank in 1865. Dent & Co. went bankrupt in 1867 during the worldwide financial crisis which originated in 1866 in London. They suffered a loss of no less than £200,000 by the malversations of a Portuguese clerk in their employment at Shanghai, who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

The petition for adjudication of bankruptcy was filed in the Supreme Court of Hong Kong on 29 June 1867. Chomley had to remove his headquarters in Shanghai and sold the Dent Building to the Hong Kong Hotel Co.

Chomley retired to his home, Clermont, Rathnew, Wicklow County after serving as Her Britannic Majesty's Consul in Hong Kong 1868.

Membership

He was the first chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company and member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. Chomley was one of the founding members of the provisional committee that launched the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company.

Connections

Partner:

John Dent