梅含理

繁體中文

梅含理（Francis Henry May，1860–1922）1860年3月14日生於愛爾蘭都柏林，父親係愛爾蘭首席法官，他先後就讀哈羅公學及都柏林三一學院，1881年獲香港政府聘任為官學生，並曾赴北京學習中文兩年，故懂得廣東話。他1893至1901年任香港警察隊長，期間指揮新界六日戰中嘅香港警察及部分英軍；1902年獲委任為輔政司，1911至1912年出任斐濟總督兼西太平洋高級專員，1912年7月4日出任第十五任香港總督。他到任當日在卜公碼頭登岸時遭槍手李漢雄行刺，未有受傷，仍照原定行程入大會堂宣誓就職，成為唯一一位曾遭意圖行刺嘅港督；此後港督出入改乘汽車，他亦是首位乘坐汽車嘅港督。任內他禁止中國錢幣在港流通，觸發1912至1913年嘅拒搭電車運動；1913年訂立《教育條例》規管私立學校，1914年頒布《叛亂刊物條例》；一戰爆發後在港英籍人士被徵召服役，他興建警察學校以補充警力。1918年2月26日跑馬地馬場大火造成逾六百人死亡，政府事後檢討木構建築與公共場所安全。1918年他因心臟病赴加拿大休養，1919年獲准提早退休，1922年逝世。半山梅道及香港大學梅堂以他命名；他在香港居住共三十八年，係歷任港督中居港最長嘅一位。

English

Sir Francis Henry May (1860–1922) was born in Dublin on 14 March 1860, son of the Chief Justice of Ireland, and educated at Harrow and Trinity College Dublin. In 1881 he joined the Hong Kong government as a cadet and spent two years in Beijing learning Chinese, becoming fluent in Cantonese. Captain Superintendent of Police from 1893 to 1901 — commanding the Hong Kong police and some British troops during the Six-Day War in the New Territories — he became Colonial Secretary in 1902 and governed Fiji as High Commissioner for the Western Pacific in 1911–1912 before taking office as Hong Kong's fifteenth Governor on 4 July 1912. Landing at Blake Pier that day he was shot at by the assassin Li Hon-hung but was unhurt, insisting on proceeding to the City Hall to be sworn in — the only Hong Kong governor to have been the target of an assassination attempt; afterwards governors travelled by car, and May was the first to do so. His ban on the circulation of Chinese coins triggered the tram boycott of 1912–1913; he enacted the Education Ordinance of 1913 requiring private schools to register and the Seditious Publications Ordinance of 1914, and, with British residents called up in the First World War, founded a police school to rebuild the force. The Happy Valley racecourse fire of 26 February 1918 killed more than six hundred people and prompted a review of timber buildings and public safety. He left for Canada in 1918 with a heart condition, was allowed to retire early in 1919 and died in 1922. May Road on the Mid-Levels and May Hall at the University of Hong Kong are named after him; he lived in Hong Kong for thirty-eight years, longer than any other governor.