Background
Mr. Hotung was born in Hong Kong, December 22, 1862.
Mr. Hotung was born in Hong Kong, December 22, 1862.
Sir Robert Hotung received his early education in Chinese schools after which he went to Hong Kong Central School (now Queen's College) for four years studying English and graduated at the head of his class.
Mr. Hotung was attached to the indoor staff of the Maritime Customs from 1878 to 1880. He served as a junior assistant to the compradore of Jardine, Matheson & Company, Ltd.,, in 1880-1882. Sir Robert Hotung held the post of a chief compradore of the Hong Kong Fire and Canton Insurance Companies between 1882 and 1888.
After resigning his position because of ill health, he launched into many business dealings and was one of the richest men in Hong Kong. Mr. Hotung was a large shareholder in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and was a director in many other concerns, including the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company; Ltd., Hong Kong Electric Company. Ltd., Peak Tramway Company, Ltd. , Hong Kong Land Investment Company, Ltd.
Sir Robert Hotung worked as a Chairman of the Hong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company, Ltd., Indo-China Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., Hong Kong Fire graduated from the Peiping Military Insurance Company, Ltd., Canton Insurance Company, Ltd., Kam Hing Knitting Company, Ltd., China Light and Power Company, Ltd., China Provident Loan and Mortgage Company, Ltd., Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing Company, Ltd., the Green Island Cement Company, Ltd., Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels, Ltd., Douglas Steamship Co., Ltd., Hong Kong Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd., and Chairman of the United Photoplay Service, Ltd.
Besides being engaged in these businesses he was one of the large property holders of Hong Kong and has also wide personal industrial interests in North China and Manchuria.
Sir Robert Hotung was known throughout China as one of the country's greatest philanthropists. he gave some $260,000 to Hong Kong University. He presented to the Colony the Kowloon Public School—the first civil school for European children in Hong Kong. Mr. Hotung founded a scholarship that bears his name at Queen's College. For many years he also gave substantial amounts to famine, flood and typhoon sufferers.
In 1915 a knighthood was conferred upon him by King George. Sir Robert Hotung was also the recipient of many decorations from the Chinese Government, from President Yuan Shih-kai down to Li Yuan-hung, including the first class Chia Ho with Grand Sash.
He was an officer of the Legion of Honour, France. Mr. Hotung was a recipient of the Red Cross, First Class, of Germany and a Knight Grand Officer of the Ancient Order of Christ, conferred by the Portuguese Government and Knight of Grace of St. John of Jerusalem and he held an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws of Hong Kong University. He represented Hong Kong as honorary commissioner at the Wembley (London) Exhibition in 1924-1925.
There are many parks, schools, and buildings named after or founded by Robert Hotung in Hong Kong, including Lady Hotung Hall at Hong Kong University, Hotung Secondary School, Tung Lin Kok-yuen Buddhist temple, and King George V School. In Macau, the Sir Robert Ho Tung Library is housed in a mansion once owned by Hotung, who resided there during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.
Mr. Hotung was Eurasian. His father, Charles Henry Maurice Bosman (1839–1892), was of Dutch Jewish ancestry, while his mother was Sze Tai, a local woman of Bao'an (present-day Shenzhen) heritage, on D'Aguilar Street. His father was a merchant who had his own company, Bosman and Co., was part owner of the Hong Kong Hotel which opened in 1868, and a director of the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company.
By 1869, Charles Bosman was also the Dutch Consul, running his own marine insurance business with important clients that included the British-owned trading conglomerate Jardine, Matheson & Co. He later left for England, where he became naturalised in 1888. In Cantonese, Bosman was pronounced Bo-se-man, which transliterated into Cantonese to become Ho Sze Man. When Robert Ho Tung Bosman travelled, he carried a certificate from the Governor of Hong Kong stating that his father was Dutch.
Robert Hotung had four sisters and five brothers.
(30 November 1863 – 29 August 1926) he succeeded his father as Head Compradore at Jardines in 1889. He had 13 sons, five of whom worked as compradores for various foreign companies. One of Ho Fook's grandsons is Stanley Ho, the casino and shipping magnate.
(1866–1950) was a younger maternal half-brother of Robert Hotung's. The son of a Chinese father, he was a prominent businessman and philanthropist who succeeded Ho Fook as Head Compradore at Jardines. He had 12 wives and reportedly more than 30 children, one of whom was Grace Ho Oi-yu (born 1907 died 1996), a Eurasian and an adopted daughter, who went on to become the mother of the famous martial artist and actor Bruce Lee. Ho Kom-Tong's last mistress was a Eurasian woman by the name of Cheung King-sin (1866-1960). Kom Tong Hall, the former Hong Kong residence of Ho Kom-tong, now houses the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Museum.
Hotung's eldest son, Edward Hotung (1902–1957), became a prominent banker and philanthropist in Hong Kong. Edward was founder of the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange in Hong Kong, as well as Treasurer of the Chinese War Chest in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation. His sons are Sir Joseph Hotung KBE and Eric Hotung CBE (1926-2017). He also had two daughters – Mary Ketterer, who received the Royal Order of the Golden Ark for her work in conservation, and Tonia.
Hotung's second son, Robert Ho Shai-lai (1906–1998), was a general under the Kuomintang regime. He renounced his British nationality and became a citizen of the Republic of China. He was also ambassador to Japan for the Republic of China from 1952 to 1956 and a member of the Nationalist China military delegation to the United Nations from 1956 to 1966. Robert's son Robert Ho Hung-ngai (born 1932), a former journalist and publisher in Hong Kong, is the founder of the Tung Lin Kok-yuen Canada Society. Robert Hung-Ngai resides in West Vancouver, Canada and recipient of the Order of British Columbia for his philanthropic work in BC.
Third son George Ho Cho-chi (3 November 1919 – 4 June 2014) was a founder of Commercial Radio Hong Kong and Commercial Television. He was still holding the title of honorary chairman when he died on 4 June 2014.
A fourth son, Henry, died of tuberculosis when he was four years old.
Victoria Hotung (Lady Lo) was his eldest daughter. She married Sir Man-kam Lo, a prominent Eurasian lawyer and legislator who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II after World War II. Their son, Lo Tak-shing, was a former lawyer and legislator in Hong Kong who once ran against Tung Chee Hwa for Chief Executive.
She wrote memoirs chronicling her war-time experiences in colonial Hong Kong. Jean Gittins migrated to Melbourne Australia after the World War where she worked in the Pathology Department of Melbourne University. She also wrote six books: "I Was at Stanley", " Eastern Windows – Western Skies", "The Diggers from China", "Stanley: Behind Barbed Wire", "A Stranger No More" and "Prizes, Books and Papers (1879/1969)" .
She wrote memoirs chronicling her war-time experiences in colonial Hong Kong.
Irene Cheng, educator, was one of the first female undergraduate students enrolled to study English at the University of Hong Kong in 1921. She went on to study for a Diploma in Education at King's College in London in 1925. In 1936, she received her Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of London.
