何東

繁體中文

何東（1862–1956），本名啟東，歐亞混血兒，父親係荷蘭籍猶太商人何仕文，母親施娣係寶安人。他在中央書院（今皇仁書院）接受西式教育，1878年畢業後任職廣東海關，1880年轉入渣甸洋行（怡和），1883年接替姐夫蔡昇南出任買辦，1894年升任怡和華總經理，1900年因健康理由辭職，由胞弟何福接任。任內他自資經營食糖買賣，離職後全力發展貿易、航運同地產，並以過繼子何世榮作代表取得鴉片專利，投資遍及上海、青島、東北同澳門，1928年前後又收購經營困難的《工商日報》，注資改革後令報紙走出困局。1897年他出任華商會所首任主席，1898年接濟逃亡的康有為，1922年海員大罷工時更四出奔走調停。1906年他獲總督會同行政局批准在中環半山居住，成為香港開埠後首位獲准在山頂一帶居住的華人，打破殖民社會的種族界線。1955年獲頒KBE，1956年4月26日病逝，享年九十三歲；臨終前以五十萬元設立何東爵士慈善基金，至今已增值至近五億元。

English

Sir Robert Ho Tung (1862–1956), born Ho Kai-tung, was a Eurasian comprador and entrepreneur, the son of the Dutch Jewish merchant Charles Henri Maurice Bosman and a Bao'an Chinese mother, Sze Tai. Educated at the Central School, the forerunner of Queen's College, he left in 1878 for a post in the Canton Customs, joined Jardine Matheson in 1880, succeeded his brother-in-law Choy Sing-nam as comprador in 1883, and became the hong's Chinese general manager in 1894; he stepped down for health reasons in 1900, handing the post to his brother Ho Fook. He ran his own sugar trading house while still at Jardine, and after leaving built up interests in trade, shipping and property, held the opium monopoly through his adopted son Ho Sai-wing, invested in Shanghai, Qingdao, Manchuria and Macau, and around 1928 bought and recapitalised the struggling Kung Sheung Daily News. He became the first chairman of the Chinese Club in 1897, sheltered the fugitive reformer Kang Youwei in 1898, and mediated during the 1922 seamen's strike. In 1906 he obtained permission from the Governor in Council to live on the Mid-Levels above Central — the first person of Chinese descent allowed to live in the Peak district — breaking the colour line of colonial society. Appointed KBE in 1955, he died on 26 April 1956 aged 93, endowing the Sir Robert Ho Tung Charitable Fund with HK$500,000; the fund is now worth close to HK$500 million.