Sir John Douglas Clague (13 June 1917 – 11 March 1981) was a British Hong Kong soldier and entrepreneur who spent most of his life in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Early years

Born in

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...

, in 1917, Clague arrived in

in 1940 as a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

, and on the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

became a prisoner in the

Sham Shui Po Sham Shui Po () is an area of Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, north of Tai Kok Tsui, east of Cheung Sha Wan and south of Shek Kip Mei (). It is located in and is the namesake of the Sham Shui ...

PoW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...

camp.HONG KONG: Trouble in the Hongs

Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

, 20 October 1975 He later escaped, and joined the

British Army Aid Group The British Army Aid Group (B.A.A.G.) was a paramilitary organisation for British and Allied forces in southern China during the Second World War. The B.A.A.G. was officially classified in the British Army's order of battle as an MI9 unit th ...

in free China. On the ending of the war, he famously took the surrender of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese forces in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

more or less single-handedly.

Business career

After the war, he became the

tai-pan A taipan (,Andrew J. Moody, "Transmission Languages and Source Languages of Chinese Borrowings in English", ''American Speech'', Vol. 71, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 414–415. literally "top class"汉英词典 — ''A Chinese-English Dictionary ...

of the British Hong Kong hong Hutchison, better known as Hutchison Whampoa. He overstretched his finances, which resulted in

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

taking over the firm, replacing Clague, and led to the sale of Hutchison Whampoa to Li Ka-Shing's

Cheung Kong Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, is a multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong. It was one of Hong Kong's leading multi-national conglomerates. The company merged with its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa on 3 June 2015, as part of a ma ...

in 1979.Stephen Vines
The Other Handover
''

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'', 6 August 2005. Clague was also one of the commandants of the Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Police Force, and a member of both the

Executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

and the Legislative Councils of Hong Kong, when he succeeded Cedric Blaker on 21 March 1958. From 1950 to 1951 he was President of the Gunners Roll of Hong Kong. Clague owned a lodge at Kam Tsin in the northern

New Territories The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...

alongside many other wealthy people. He was also a

racehorse Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

owner and one time chairman of the

Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) was founded in 1884 and is one of the oldest institutions in Hong Kong. In 1960, it was granted a royal charter and renamed The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club (). The institution reverted to its original name in 19 ...

; it was under his tenure that the

Sha Tin Racecourse Sha Tin Racecourse is one of the two racecourses for horse racing in Hong Kong. It is located in Sha Tin District, Sha Tin in the New Territories. It is managed by Hong Kong Jockey Club. Penfold Park is encircled by the track, and the Ho ...

was developed. The

Clague Garden Estate Clague Garden Estate () is a Flat-for-Sale Scheme public housing estate in Tsuen Wan, New Territories, Hong Kong located on reclaimed land near Tsuen Wan Pier and MTR Tsuen Wan West station. It now consists of three residential buildings, built ...

Tsuen Wan Tsuen Wan (formerly also spelled Tsun Wan) is a New towns of Hong Kong, town built on a bay in the New Territories West (constituency), western New Territories of Hong Kong, opposite Tsing Yi, Tsing Yi Island across Rambler Channel. The market ...

is named for him, as he was also one of the longest serving chairmen of the

Hong Kong Housing Society The Hong Kong Housing Society, or Housing Society for short, is the second largest public housing provider in Hong Kong (the first being the Hong Kong Housing Authority). The Society housed around 130,000 residents as of 2020. The Housing Soci ...

Personal

Clague was married to Lady Margaret Isolin Clague (née Cowley); they had three children (Jonathan, Penny and Isolin). Sir John Douglas Clague died of cancer aged 64, in 1981. Lady Clague died in 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clague, Douglas 1917 births 1981 deaths British expatriates in Hong Kong 20th-century British businesspeople Hong Kong justices of the peace Royal Artillery officers British Army personnel of World War II British colonial police officers World War II prisoners of war held by Japan Escapees from Japanese detention British people imprisoned in Japan Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Military Cross Hong Kong recipients of the Queen's Police Medal British expatriates in Southern Rhodesia Knights Bachelor