James Sturgis Fearon was the Chairman 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 ...

in from 1898 to 1899.

Biography

Fearon was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia in 1849, the youngest son of Christopher Fearon and Grace Fearon. Fearon moved to Shanghai at the age of 21 in 1870. He joined the staff of Augustin, Heard & Co in the tea department. When that firm when out of business, he formed the firm of Fearon, Lowe & co with Mr E.G. Lowe. After Lowe's death he was joined in partnership by Mr Daniel and in 1880, Fearon, Daniel & Co was established. In 1900 he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to run Fearon Daniel & Co's business there. He returned to China in 1910 and was principally based in Tianjin. He naturalised as an American in 1903. In his younger days, Fearon was an active member of the Victoria Company of the Shanghai Fire Brigade. Later, he was part of a committee that was responsible for creating the public recreation ground at the Shanghai Race Course. He was later a Steward of the

Shanghai Race Club The Shanghai Race Club was a horse racing club located in Shanghai, China. The Club was based at the Shanghai Racecourse (), and the two names are often used interchangeably. Originally the Race Committee of the International Recreation Club, the ...

. Fearon was elected to and became chairman of the

in January 1898 and served until August 1899 when he resigned. He was replaced as Chairman by Frederick Anderson. Fearon died on 26 October 1920 in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

and was buried at the Canton Road Cemetery His grave was destroyed along with the cemetery during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

Marriage

Fearon married Emily Wood. They had two sons and one daughter. Emily died in 1934 in Shanghai and was buried at the Hongqiao Road Cemetery.North China Herald, June 7, 1934, p2

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fearon, James History of Shanghai Chairmen of the Shanghai Municipal Council 1849 births 1920 deaths Businesspeople from Sydney Chinese people of Australian descent