Sydney Hugh ("Syd") de Kantzow (9 November 1914 – 21 November 1957) was the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n co-founder of

Cathay Pacific Airways Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CPA), more widely known as Cathay Pacific (), is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and subsidiaries have s ...

with American

Roy Farrell Roy Clinton Farrell (June 19, 1912 – January 3, 1996) was the American co-founder of Cathay Pacific Airways along with the Australian Sydney de Kantzow. Early years Farrell was born in Vernon, Texas. He went to China during World War II, and ev ...

. De Kantzow, the son of Charles Adolphus de Kantzow, was born to a family of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

origin and grew up in the

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 ...

suburb of

Roseville, New South Wales Roseville is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Ku-ring-gai and Willoughby. Roseville Chase is a separate ...

. He served during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as a pilot for the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

. Both de Kantzow and Farrell were ex-air force pilots who had flown

The Hump The Hump was the name given by Allied pilots in the Second World War to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains over which they flew military transport aircraft from India to China to resupply the Chinese war effort of Chiang Kai-shek and t ...

, a route over the

Himalayan Mountains The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

. It was said that Madame Chiang Kai-shek always asked for him personally as her pilot. He was awarded the

Order of the Cloud and Banner The Order of the Cloud and Banner () also known as the Order of the Resplendent Banner is a military award of the Republic of China. It was instituted on June 15, 1935 and is awarded in nine grades for contributions to national security. The insig ...

personally by her for his services with CNAC and the

Burma Star The Burma Star is a military campaign medal, instituted by the United Kingdom in May 1945 for award to British and Commonwealth forces who served in the Burma Campaign from 1941 to 1945, during the Second World War. One clasp, Pacific, was ...

for his services in respect to the relief aid program. Although initially based in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, the two men moved to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

to found

. They named it "Cathay" because that was the medieval name given to China derived from "Khitan", and "Pacific" because Farrell speculated that they would one day fly across the Pacific. The Chinese name for the company comes from a Chinese idiom meaning "Grand and Peaceful State". As the business developed, Farrell focused more on the shipping aspects of the company and de Kantzow focused more on flying the aircraft. The early Cathay Pacific pilots were referred to as "Syd's Pirates". De Kantzow resigned from Cathay Pacific in 1951 and died in a high-speed car accident in 1957. He and his wife Angela Mary (1924 – 2005) had son

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, a director and co-founder of

Waterfront Air Waterfront Air () is a Chinese airline started in 2008 with the aim of reintroducing seaplane services from Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour. In 2014 the airline ended plans for operating in Hong Kong and instead is focusing its operations in the C ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Kantzow, Sydney 1914 births 1957 deaths 20th-century Australian businesspeople Australian aviators Businesspeople in aviation Cathay Pacific Australian people of Polish descent Australian people of Swedish descent Australian expatriates in Hong Kong Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II Australian company founders Royal Australian Air Force officers Australian World War II pilots Road incident deaths in New South Wales Airline founders