Diplomats Tiptoe Around Adoption Powder Keg

SUNDAY MORNING POST SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2007 11 treettreet ChaterChat legacy CatchickCatchick S er legacy Who was exhibitionex hibition this man Chater? s and hampion ChampionsC andCup Since then, she’s set up a hugely ChaCh ChaterChater Cup A bored new mum’s internet informative website, published a short atterer RRoadoa booklet, and organised several trips and d Chater reunions. Earlier this year, in May, surﬁng led her to the greatest she helped commemorate Chater’s death at his grave in Hong Kong. She also helped organise the previous year’s gathering of life story never told, writes more than 100 Armenians in Hong Kong. This year she pursued her talks with Father Oshagan Gulgulian, from the Vaudine England church which once played a key role in the young Chater’s life and to which he left part of his fortune – the Armenian church of Calcutta. e’s one of those men they need financial support from within On Chater’s death in 1926, the bulk of HarbourHarbour everyone in Hong Hong Kong – preferably from the hongs his estate went to the Armenian Holy Kong should know who owe most to his vision – if another Nazareth Church in Calcutta, which runs a about, but almost piece in Hong Kong’s history jigsaw is to fall Home for Armenians where elderly reclamationreclamation no one does. Chater into place. members of the community still live. Road, Chater Liz Chater, who lives in Hampshire, The priest met Robert Nield, president Square, Chater traces her roots back to the big man and of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong, Garden, even has taken on the mantle of lead fact-digger. and Denis Way, co-authors of a fine book Catchick Street, the “We owe thanks to a lady in the south of about PricewaterhouseCoopers called The extension of England, Liz Chater, for much of the Counting House. Liz Chater is hoping these Kennedy Town Praya – who was this current interest in Sir Paul,” said Mr men will be her co-authors of a book on HChater person? Bonsall. Chater – and to that end they all went to The author of a rare study on the She has amassed a raft of material, Calcutta in July. A subsequent trip by Liz Armenians who ventured east to India and tracking down mementoes, grave stones Chater alone helped pin down an the China Coast, Mesrovb Jacob Seth, and key marriage certificates, tracing the agreement from the church to help. wrote in his 1937 book, Armenians in India: vast family tree of Chaters and the larger “Myself, Denis and Robert have a “The future historian of Hong Kong will Armenian community, and bringing [statement of] firm interest of part- find his task as regards the past sixty years a together people similarly interested in the sponsorship from the Armenian Church in sinecure, for the record of Hong Kong will subject. Calcutta, but as a team are still seeking be a replica of the career of Sir Paul “I knew nothing about Sir Paul when I further sponsors. [We’re] hopeful that a ChaterC Garden Chater.” started,” she said. “I had a baby in 2000 and major Hong Kong corporate would like to House hate Yet there is no biography of the man he just slept and slept, so I had a lot of time join in on this unique joint venture on the haterter House r Ga who helped build Hong Kong. on my hands and starting flicking through story of Sir Paul,” Liz Chater said. “I never, ChaC rden Some clues can be gleaned from The the computer on family history pages. ever thought in my wildest dreams that I Chater Legacy, an exhibition now being “I found my father, my grandfather, and would get this far with my little research SMP GRAPHIC held by the Hong Kong Museum of Art. before long I was hooked. The questions project on Sir Paul Chater, and I hope that Due to close in January, the exhibition has kept coming, and one name just kept 2008 will be the year that sees the full been extended to June 2008. leading to another. editorial process begin. Now if I can just more details. She believes the grand old for Chater’s reclamation that created to recover in hospital,” recounted Mr This features a selection of the varied art “When I came to Sir Paul, I realised he find one or two more sponsors – I’ve run man got his leg-up in life by asking for it. Connaught Road along the waterfront – Bonsall at a recent talk. collections that Chater accumulated in his was famous and looked around for a out of stuff to sell on eBay!” “One day he plucked up the courage to though it’s now far inland. But Chater had style, not least with his lifetime, but still leaves a lot of his life in the biography of him – but there was nothing,” Her forebear would have been rightly ask the head of Sassoons whether they He also was the first to suggest to the lavish entertainment at his home, Marble shadows. she said. miffed if he had imagined how hard it would help him if he started as an government that new lands should be Hall. Like Mody’s Buxey Lodge, this Geoffrey Bonsall, adviser to the would be for the place he loved to Exchange broker. acquired beyond Kowloon – namely the mansion has disappeared. museum among many other things, notes recognise his contributions to it. They said yes and Catchick resigned New Territories. Liz Chater’s work has got almost out of that “although he represented Hong Kong Catchick Paul Chater was born in from the bank. In his first month of trading Catchick Street in Kennedy Town marks hand, leading her into a massive in 1902 at the coronation of King Edward I never, ever thought in Calcutta in 1846 to a family of Armenian he cleared $600 and very quickly he rose to where he was responsible for reclaiming documentation of Armenian graves across VII, he was not Chinese, nor even born in merchants, one of 14 children. But he was be the greatest financial magnate of the 10.5 hectares. Asia, alongside her ongoing Chater Hong Kong”. my wildest dreams that I orphaned by the time he was nine and colony.” He pioneered iron mining in the New research. Yet Catchick Paul Chater was one of would get this far with became a scholarship boy. The China Mail once wondered why a Territories, coal-mining in Tonkin Indo- But why ask others for money; surely those legendary characters, instigator of At 18 he reached Hong Kong, where he young Chater was getting into a sampan at China – hence his award of the Legion the Chater coffers must be overflowing? just about anything that moved in Hong my little research project worked in the Bank of Hindustan, China dusk, night after night, and pottering d’Honneur from a grateful France – and “Yes, Chater left money to the family, Kong at the turn of the last century. ............................................................... and Japan, staying with the family of his around the harbour of Hong Kong in the initiated cotton-spinning factories. He gave but in the 80 years since his death it has He was a leading figure in the (then Liz Chater, descendant of Sir Paul relatives, the Jordans. shadows of the shore. money to the University of Hong Kong, St dwindled as the families have grown and Royal) Hong Kong Jockey Club, one of the Within a couple of years he was trading He was taking soundings to measure John’s Cathedral and Kowloon Union there is no money left,” she says. first two unofficial members appointed to in gold and bullion on his own account and the depth of different parts of the foreshore Church as well as St Andrew’s in Kowloon. Some individuals at Hong Kong’s the Executive Council, adviser to investing in land. because of his idea that some land Not everything he touched turned to leading companies and clubs – many of governors, and helped found Hongkong His business partners and friends reclamation might make sense – and to gold – while in partnership with Mody, they which owe so much to this man – have Land, Hongkong Electric, and the original included Sir Hormusjee Mody, the Sassoon find water deep enough to handle ocean- suffered the failure in 1908 of the Hong allowed access to their records. But none Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and family, William Keswick and John Bell- going steamers. Kong Flour Mill in Junk Bay, otherwise has yet put up the money required for a Godown Company. Irving – the other leading unofficial The result of his searches were the first known as Rennie’s Mill. professional job, which Liz knows she can’t With all the talk lately about the need to member of the Executive Council – and the Kowloon wharfs. He is also credited with “There was already a bad omen at the do on her own. preserve Hong Kong’s heritage, a dedicated entire Freemason community of which he the first reclamations of parts of the opening ceremony when Mody hesitated “It’s a question of finding the right band of historians, urged on by descendant was a prominent member. harbour in Kowloon and Wan Chai, and fell at the top of what was described as, person at the right time – there are funds and eager researcher Liz Chater, thinks it’s By the late 1880s, new ideas or starting a trend that many might wish had ‘an ingenious staircase [like an early for worthy projects in Hong Kong,” said time a book told all about Chater.

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