Alexander Gordon Stephen, JP (14 September 1862 – 27 August 1924) was the chief manager of the

Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (), commonly known as HSBC (), was the parent entity of the multinational HSBC banking group until 1991, and is now its Hong Kong-based Asia-Pacific subsidiary. The largest bank in Hong K ...

Biography

He was born in

Banff, Aberdeenshire Banff ( gd, Banbh) is a town in the Banff and Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is situated on Banff Bay and faces the town of Macduff across the estuary of the River Deveron. It is a former royal burgh, and is the county town of the ...

on 14 September 1862. After he served an apprenticeship at the Town and Country Bank in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

, he joined the London office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1882. He arrived in Hong Kong on 27 August 1885. He was transferred to

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and the

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

office, and stationed in Batavia from 1896 to 1902 until he was appointed agent at

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

. He became manager in the

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

branch and undertook a tour of inspection of the North China branches. He was then appointed manager in Shanghai in 1912 and acted as chief manager in Hong Kong for a few months during the absence of Newton John Stabb in London. He subsequently returned to Shanghai as a manager until he succeeded as chief manager on the retirement of Newton John Stabb in 1920. He also held many public offices in Hong Kong. He was appointed as unofficial member of the Executive Council and Legislative Council and made a

Justice of Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

in 1921. He was a member of both Court and Council of the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

. He was also a member of the general committee of the

Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC; ) 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 around one-third of Hong Kon ...

He also enjoyed many popular wins in Shanghai and Hong Kong as a steward of the

Hong Kong Jockey Club The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) is one of the oldest institutions in Hong Kong, having been founded in 1884. In 1959, it was granted a Royal Charter and renamed The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club (). The institution reverted to its original name ...

with Stephen and Stitt. Leaving in May 1924 for London due to illness, he died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

due to infarct of the lung at a London nursing home at the night of 27 August. The funeral took place on 2 September at the

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederic ...

. HSBC's principal offices, including the

HSBC Main Building HSBC Main Building is a headquarters building of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which is today a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based HSBC Holdings. It is located on the southern side of Statue Square near the location of the ...

in Hong Kong, the former office in Shanghai, and the current global headquarters in London, all feature a pair of bronze lions. The first of these, in Shanghai, were commissioned by Stephen and inspired by his visit to the

Venetian Arsenal The Venetian Arsenal ( it, Arsenale di Venezia) is a complex of former shipyards and armories clustered together in the city of Venice in northern Italy. Owned by the state, the Arsenal was responsible for the bulk of the Venetian republic's ...

. By tradition, the lion on the left in each of these pairs is depicted roaring and is named "Stephen" in memory of Alexander Gordon Stephen. (The right hand lion is named "Stitt", after G H Stitt, Stephen's successor as Manager Shanghai.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephen, Alexander Gordon 1862 births 1924 deaths HSBC people Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong Hong Kong bankers Scottish bankers Scottish expatriates in Hong Kong Scottish expatriates in China People from Aberdeenshire Deaths from pneumonia in England