Sir James David McGregor (30 January 1924 – 14 July 2014) was a Hong Kong colonial government official and a member of the

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 ...

for the

Commercial (First) The Commercial (First) functional constituency () is a functional constituency in the elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong first created in 1985. The constituency is composed of corporate members of the Hong Kong General Chambe ...

functional constituency from 1988 to 1995 and non-official member of the

Executive Council of Hong Kong The Executive Council of Hong Kong (ExCo) is the Cabinet (government), cabinet of the Government of Hong Kong, acting as a formal body of advisers to the Chief Executive of Hong Kong that serves as a core policy-making organ assisting the c ...

from 1995 to 1997. He was also the long-time director of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.

Early life, civil service and business career

McGregor was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland on 30 January 1924 and was educated at the Dux Boy Aberhill H.G. School. He arrived in Hong Kong as a

non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is an enlisted rank, enlisted leader, petty officer, or in some cases warrant officer, who does not hold a Commission (document), commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority b ...

with the

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in 1951 and in early 1954 joined the Commerce and Industry Department of the colonial government as an executive officer and was later promoted to administrative officer. He was the Assistant Director of the Commerce and Industry Department during the Hong Kong 1967 Leftist Riots and was involved in the anti-propaganda "war room" under Jack Cater against the rioters. For his contribution, he was made Companion of the Imperial Service Order in 1971. He worked for the Commerce and Industry Department for 22 years before he left the government in 1973. After leaving the civil service, he was awarded the

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1976. After departing from the civil service, he was the director of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce in which he held the position from 1975 to 1988. Under his leadership, the chamber acquired the current office at the United Centre in

Admiralty, Hong Kong Admiralty () is the eastern extension of the central business district (adjacent to, but separate from, Central, Hong Kong, Central) on the Hong Kong Island of Hong Kong. It is located on the eastern end of the Central and Western District, ...

. He was also the vice-chairman of the Hongkong Chinese Bank.

Political career

In the 1988 Legislative Council election, the second indirect election to the

, McGregor ran in the chamber's

functional constituency as a liberal candidate in the chamber for the greater democratisation against Veronica Wu who was supported by the conservative lobby Group of 88. After defeating Wu by 478 to 236 votes, he claimed "this is a victory for greater democracy." In May 1989, he founded the Hong Kong Democratic Foundation (HKDF) with legislator Dr. Leong Che-hung of the Medical constituency. He was re-elected in the 1991 Legislative Council election against Paul Cheng, with 487 to 416 votes. In the

1994 Hong Kong electoral reform The 1994 Hong Kong electoral reform was a set of significant constitutional changes in the last years of British colonial rule in Hong Kong before the Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, handover of its sovereignty to the People's Republic o ...

voting, he supported

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Chris Patten's reform proposals and independent democrat Emily Lau's motion for fully direct elected legislature in 1995. As the Sino-British relations became tense due to the reform proposals, McGregor received a humiliating defeat in a general committee election of the General Chamber of Commerce in 1994, receiving 543 out of about 2,000 votes and was excluded from the general committee for the first time since 1989. He attributed his defeat to the fact that the chamber was heading in a more pro-China direction. He was also forced to resign as a director of the Hongkong Chinese Bank (HKCB) because of his pro-democracy beliefs in 1993. He stepped down from the Legislative Council in September 1995. In October 1995, McGregor was appointed to Governor Chris Patten's Executive Council to succeed retiring Senior Member Dame Lydia Dunn, but he stayed with the HKDF as a senior member and mentor until his retirement to Canada in 1997. On the eve of the end of the colonial rule, he was knighted in June 1997 along with

Donald Tsang Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen (; born 7 October 1944) is a former Hong Kong civil servant who served as the second Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2012. Tsang joined the colonial civil service as an Executive Officer in 1967, occupyi ...

, the then

Financial Secretary Financial secretary is an administrative and executive government position within the governance of a state, corporation, private or public organization, small group or other body with financial assets. A financial secretary oversees policy con ...

who later became the 2nd

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Retirement and death

He married Christine Kwai-cheung McGregor and had two children. McGregor retired in

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and was fond of golfing and gardening; he continued to keep track on current affairs in Hong Kong. He had difficulty walking in his later life. He died aged 90 on 14 July 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGregor, Jimmy 1924 births 2014 deaths Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Hong Kong financial businesspeople Hong Kong Democratic Foundation politicians HK LegCo Members 1988–1991 HK LegCo Members 1991–1995 Government officials of Hong Kong Officers of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Companions of the Imperial Service Order Hong Kong justices of the peace Hong Kong people of Scottish descent Scottish expatriates in Hong Kong Church of Scotland Canadian people of Scottish descent Royal Air Force airmen Scottish bankers 20th-century Scottish businesspeople 21st-century Scottish businesspeople