彌敦

繁體中文

彌敦（Matthew Nathan，1862–1939）係英籍猶太裔軍人及殖民地官員，服役於皇家工程兵，1900年獲委任為黃金海岸總督，成為首位出任大英帝國殖民地總督嘅猶太人；1904年7月他出任第十三任香港總督。他任內大力推動鐵路與基建，九廣鐵路英段（尖沙咀至羅湖）於1906年動工、1910年通車，奠定新界與九龍嘅交通命脈；他亦擴建道路網，發展九龍市區及中西區，九龍最寬闊嘅幹道彌敦道以他命名。1906年9月18日颱風正面吹襲香港（丙午風災），沿海船隻與房屋損毀嚴重，罹難人數逾萬，政府事後加強風災預警與避風設施。1907年他離任，轉任昆士蘭總督（1907–1913），其後返英歷任愛爾蘭事務次官等職，1939年逝世。

English

Sir Matthew Nathan (1862–1939) was a British Jewish Royal Engineers officer and colonial administrator who in 1900 was appointed Governor of the Gold Coast, the first Jew to govern a British colony, and became Hong Kong's thirteenth Governor in July 1904. He pushed railways and infrastructure hard: construction of the British section of the Kowloon–Canton Railway from Tsim Sha Tsui to Lo Wu began in 1906 and opened in 1910, becoming the transport spine linking Kowloon with the New Territories, while he extended the road network and developed urban Kowloon and the Central and Western district; Nathan Road, Kowloon's widest artery, is named after him. On 18 September 1906 a typhoon struck Hong Kong head-on — the 1906 typhoon disaster — wrecking coastal shipping and buildings and killing more than ten thousand people, after which the government strengthened storm warnings and shelter arrangements. He left in 1907 to become Governor of Queensland (1907–1913) and later served in Britain, including as Under-Secretary for Ireland; he died in 1939.