Alexander Palmer MacEwen (1846–1919) was a British businessman in China and member of the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Kong ...

Biography

MacEwen was head of the Holiday, Wise & Co., agent and member on the consulting committee of the

Hongkong and Shanghai Bank 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 ...

, Jardine, Matheson & Co. and Union Insurance Society of Canton. He was also Vice-Chairman 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 ...

. member of the

as the representative of the chamber in April 1886 during the absence of Thomas Jackson, and from 1887 after Jackson's retirement until 1890 when left for England. He had advocated for the establishment of a municipal council, letting the local community to manage their own affairs, and also an unofficial majority in the Legislative Council for many years. The suggestions were later taken by the Petitioners, consisting of many local business leaders, to the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...

in 1893 and was eventually rejected by

Lord Ripon George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, (24 October 1827 – 9 July 1909), styled Viscount Goderich from 1833 to 1859 and known as the Earl of Ripon in 1859 and as the Earl de Grey and Ripon from 1859 to 1871, was a British p ...

, the then

Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British Cabinet government minister, minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various British Empire, colonial dependencies. Histor ...

. During his stay in Hong Kong, he was also President of the Victoria Recreation Club and member of the

Hong Kong Golf Club The Hong Kong Golf Club is a private golf club. It is home to the Hong Kong Open, a tournament co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours. Founded in 1889 as the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club, the Club originally played in Happy Valley, a loc ...

. He later moved to Shanghai and became Chairman of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce and also member of the Watch and Defence Committee of the

Shanghai Municipal Council The Shanghai International Settlement () originated from the merger in the year 1863 of the British Concession (Shanghai), British and American Concession (Shanghai), American list of former foreign enclaves in China, enclaves in Shanghai, i ...

until he returned to Hong Kong in 1896. In 1902, he was elected Vice-President of the Hastings and St. Leonards Conservative Association. He returned to England to take the office at Hollington in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. His daughter, Mary Ethel Winifred MacEwen married Sir Sidney Barton.

References

1846 births 1919 deaths British businesspeople British expatriates in China British expatriates in Hong Kong Chairmen of HSBC Jardine Matheson Group Hong Kong businesspeople Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong 19th-century British businesspeople {{UK-business-bio-stub