周埈年

繁體中文

周埈年（Sir Tsun-nin Chau，1893–1971）1893年10月22日在香港出生，祖籍廣東東莞，父親周少岐係立法局非官守議員，堂弟周錫年其後亦成為兩局議員。他早年在聖士提反書院就讀，1910年赴英國牛津大學王后學院讀法律，1914年畢業並在中殿律師學院取得大律師資格。返港後他執業數月便轉營家族金融及保險業務，曾任廣東信託銀行董事長，以及油蔴地小輪、香港電燈、香港電話等公司董事。1922年獲委任非官守太平紳士，1929年出任潔淨局（市政局前身）局紳，1931年12月獲港督貝璐委任為立法局非官守議員，係香港史上首位繼父親進入立法局嘅議員；1937年1月他成為立法局首席華人非官守議員，1939年12月退任，由羅文錦接替。香港重光後，他1945年獲臨時軍政府委任為副華民政務司，1946年5月民政恢復後重返立法局，並同時加入行政局任首席華人非官守議員；1950年出任立法局首席非官守議員，1953年榮休，1959年退任行政局首席非官守議員，英女皇御准他終身保留「議員」稱號。他亦曾任東華三院永遠顧問、保良局永遠總理及中華總商會名譽顧問，並為屯門中山公園孫逸仙博士紀念碑撰寫三百七十餘字碑文，1961年獲香港大學頒授榮譽法學博士。1971年1月27日在跑馬地養和醫院逝世，終年七十七歲。

English

Sir Tsun-nin Chau (1893–1971) was born in Hong Kong on 22 October 1893, his family originating in Dongguan, Guangdong; his father Chau Siu-ki was an unofficial member of the Legislative Council and his cousin Sir Sik-nin Chau also became a member of both councils. Educated at St Stephen's College, he went to Queen's College, Oxford in 1910 to read law, graduated in 1914 and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple. After a few months in practice he turned to the family's finance and insurance business, later chairing the Canton Trust Bank and sitting on the boards of the Yaumati Ferry, Hongkong Electric and Hong Kong Telephone. Appointed an unofficial Justice of the Peace in 1922 and a member of the Sanitary Board in 1929, he was named an unofficial member of the Legislative Council by Governor Peel in December 1931 — the first man in Hong Kong's history to follow his father into that chamber — and became Senior Chinese Unofficial Member in January 1937, retiring in December 1939 when Sir Man Kam Lo succeeded him. After the Japanese occupation he was appointed deputy Secretary for Chinese Affairs by the temporary military government in 1945, returned to the Legislative Council when civil government resumed in May 1946, joined the Executive Council as Senior Chinese Unofficial Member, became Senior Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council in 1950, retired from that chamber in 1953 and stepped down from the Executive Council in 1959, when the Queen granted him the right to keep the title 'The Honourable' for life. He was also a permanent adviser to Tung Wah and a permanent director of Po Leung Kuk, wrote the inscription on the Sun Yat-sen memorial in Tuen Mun's Sun Yat-sen Park, and received an honorary doctorate in law from the University of Hong Kong in 1961. He died at the Sanatorium Hospital in Happy Valley on 27 January 1971, aged 77.