Edward Victor David Parr, JP (22 May 1870 – 2 April 1947) was a British businessman and unofficial member of the Executive Council and

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, colloquially known as LegCo, is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under People's Republic of China, China's "one country, two systems" c ...

Biography

Parr was born in

Haslington Haslington is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies about north-east of the much larger railway town of Crewe and approximately ...

, Cheshire. He first arrived in Hong Kong in 1896. After that he had been stationed Shanghai, Japan and India. He returned to Hong Kong and became head of many leading companies in Hong Kong. He was the acting superintendent of P&O in 1916. In 1920 he was elected by the directors as the chairman of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation. He remained on the board until his resignation in 1924 on leaving Hong Kong. He was active in the British business community and was made Justice of the Peace in April 1915. In January 1916, Parr signed a petition organised by Henry Pollock to the

Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom's government minister, minister in charge of managing certain parts of the British Empire. The colonial secretary never had responsibility for t ...

for constitution reform in Hong Kong. It demanded a larger increase of unofficial members in the Executive Council and also all unofficial members in the Legislative Council elected by the

Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC; zh, t=香港總商會) was founded on 29 May 1861, and is the oldest and one of the largest business organizations in Hong Kong. It has around 4,000 corporate members, who combined employ aroun ...

and unofficial Justices of Peace. He was member of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and when the Chamber moved for the exclusion of the German merchants after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in 1917 under the chairmanship of Percy Holyoak, he raised his support to the resolution and suggested to send their demand to the London government. On 13 May 1919 he was elected by the committee to be the representative of the Chamber of Commerce in the Legislative Council during the absence of Percy Holyoak. He was temporarily again appointed by the Hong Kong government as to the Legislative Council in September 1919. He was appointed again to the Legislative Council in March 1920 and continued to serve until his resignation in 1923 In September 1920, he was appointed to the Executive Council as an unofficial member during Ernest Sharp was on leave. He was also member of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club and representative of the club on the Recreation Grounds Committee and had also been appointed to the Authorized Architects' Committee. He died in Rusthall, Kent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parr, Edward Victor David 1870 births 1947 deaths People from Haslington Chairmen of HSBC Hong Kong businesspeople British businesspeople Hong Kong people of British descent British expatriates in Hong Kong British expatriates in China British expatriates in Japan British expatriates in India Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong