Sir William Edward Leonard Shenton (18 March 1885 – 20 November 1967) was an English

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

who worked in Hong Kong. Born in

Morestead Morestead is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Owslebury, in the Winchester district, in Hampshire, England. It is in the South Downs, about southeast of Winchester. In 1931 the parish had a population of 96. On 1 April 1 ...

near

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

, he was the son of William Shenton and Eleanor Johnson. He went to the Northgate School at St. Thomas, Hampshire around 1901. He arrived in Hong Kong in 1908 and rose to the head of the well-known Hong Kong legal firm of

Deacons A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

. He was also the chairman of the

Union Insurance Society of Canton The Union Insurance Society of Canton (commonly known as the Union) was a major Hong Kong–based insurance company regarded in the early 20th century as one of the four leading British businesses, or " hongs", of colonial Hong Kong alongside Hong ...

. He was appointed 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 ...

temporarily in 1927 and again from 1928, until his retirement and returned to England in 1936. He was also member of the legal sub-committee of 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 ...

. He was made

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...

in the New Year Honours of 1923. He married Erica Lucy Denison, daughter of civil engineer Albert Denison of Hong Kong. He had one son and one daughter. His daughter, Yvonne Eleanor Mutch Shenton, a keen horse woman, was married to Cecil Edward Sanford Barclay, son of Sir Colville Barclay. He died in 1967 in

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, England.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shenton, William 1885 births 1967 deaths Hong Kong solicitors English solicitors British expatriates in Hong Kong Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong Knights Bachelor People from Winchester 20th-century English lawyers Lawyers from Hampshire