Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c5.s3.t13: Paul Chater
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c5.s3.t13
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Paul Chater
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Catchik Paul Chater (September 8, 1846 – May 27, 1926) was an Armenian businessman from Calcutta who played a major role in the early development of Hong Kong. His Chinese name was Zhe Da 遮打. There are many monuments to Chater in Hong Kong and the centrally located Chater Garden on Hong Kong Island is named after him.
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Catchik Paul Chater
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Chater came to Hong Kong in 1864 as a clerk in the Bank of Hindustan, China and Japan. With the help of the Sassoon business group, he ventured into share brokerage and had great success. In 1868, he established a flourishing partnership with the Parsi businessman Hormusji N Mody under the name Chater & Mody. But his major achievement was in the sphere of real estate development, helping to develop a significant portion of the island’s Central district. In 1886, he set up the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company to develop Kowloon Harbour on the mainland and Kennedy Town in the northwestern part of the island. His grandest project, however, was the Praya Reclamation scheme to develop the central waterfront area on the northern shore of Hong Kong island. This was done through the company which he formed in1889, Hong Kong Land. He was a visionary who pushed to bring electricity at an early stage to Hong Kong through his Hong Kong Electric Company which he formed in 1889. In recognition of the role he played in Hong Kong’s development, he was appointed to the Executive Council of Hong Kong in 1896 and knighted by the British government in 1902. He, however, continued to support institutions back in India like his alma mater, the well-known La Martiniere College in Calcutta.
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Chater bequeathed most of his estate, valued at nearly $5 million, to Hong Kong on his death including the fabulous mansion ‘Marble House’ on Conduit Road. After the death of his wife in 1935, this became the residence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. He also built up a very valuable art collection which includes some of the best visual representations of life in the ports of the China coast in the 19th century. Although most of the collection was destroyed during the Japanese occupation what remains is housed in the Hong Kong Museum of Art today.
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(*Madhavi Thampi*)