John Johnstone Paterson (29 October 1886 - 29 January 1971) was a

tai-pan A tai-pan (,Andrew J. Moody, "Transmission Languages and Source Languages of Chinese Borrowings in English", ''American Speech'', Vol. 71, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 414-415. literally "top class"汉英词典 — ''A Chinese-English Dictionary' ...

of Jardine Matheson & Co. and a member of the Executive Council and

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 Ko ...

Biography

The eldest son of William Paterson, a former partner at Jardine Matheson & Co. in the 1870s and 1880s, J. J. Paterson followed in his father's footsteps, becoming managing director of the firm in the 1930s. He also served as chairman 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 ...

on three occasions between 1932 and 1941. Paterson was first appointed to the Legislative Council in April 1930 as a stand-in for B. D. F. Beith. Subsequently, he was re-appointed to two four-year-terms in 1934 and 1938. In April 1936, Paterson succeeded William Edward Leonard Shenton as a member of the Executive Council. During his time in Hong Kong, Paterson served on a number of public bodies, including the

Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps The Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers) (RHKR(V)) ()), formed in May 1854, was a local auxiliary militia force funded and administered by the colonial Government of Hong Kong. Its powers and duties were mandated by the Royal Hong Kong R ...

Advisory Committee, the Hong Kong Naval Volunteer Advisory Committee, the Authorized Architects' Committee, the Housing Commission and the Taxation Committee. During the Battle of Hong Kong, he commandeered the

' Special Guard Company known as the Hugheseliers, after its founder A.W. Hughes. Many of the recruits were older British men who had fought in World War I and the Boer War. The company was tasked with defending the North Point Power Station and was one of the few to survive the Japanese attack. Paterson became a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

during the

Japanese occupation of Hong Kong The Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. The surrender occurred after 18 days of fierce ...

and was detained at Shamshuipo Camp and

Argyle Street Camp Argyle Street Camp was a Japanese World War II prisoner-of-war camp in Kowloon, Hong Kong, which primarily held officer prisoners. World War II Built by the Hong Kong government as a refugee camp before the war as North Point Camp and Ma Tau C ...

. After the war, J.J. Paterson settled in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

, where he died in 1971.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paterson, John Johnstone 1886 births 1971 deaths Jardine Matheson Group Chairmen of HSBC Hong Kong businesspeople Hong Kong people of Scottish descent Scottish expatriates in Hong Kong Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong World War II prisoners of war held by Japan British Army personnel of World War II 20th-century Scottish businesspeople British people in British Hong Kong British expatriates in Kenya