Forgotten Souls: A Social History of the Hong Kong Cemetery

Chapter 23: Industry at the Turn of the Century

The Metamorphosis of the Merchants The story of Ernest Deacon [23/4/9] may serve as an introduction to the changes that were taking place in the kind of business transacted by the merchants of the China Coast. It also shows how a family with money earned in the Far East could then climb from relatively humble origins to the heights of squiredom and respectability. Deacon’s grandfather had been a coachman and owner of a line of horse-drawn carriages that ran between Wiltshire and Newcastle stopping at inns en route to drop passengers off, change horses or rest for the night. His son, James, set up as a not very successful shipping agent in London and fathered fifteen children. One son, Ed mund, looked to China and in 1847 began his career there as a tea inspector for Heard & Co. He was soon trading on his own account as well as acting for the firm. In 1856 after nine years in China, he was able to retire aged just twenty-seven with a fortune that enabled him to buy a large manor house in the countryside and live in comfort for the rest of his life. Richard followed his brother into Heard & Co. and he too made a fortune. Albert, the seventh child in the family and third brother to go east, had left school at fourteen. He also acquired his experience in the tea trade at Heard & Co. In 1856, he set up independently as a tea Chapter 23 Industry at the Turn of the Century 23.1.and 23.2. A monument to the memory of Ernest Deacon, merchant, d. 1.7.1890, who is pictured beside the monument. (From The Merchants of Shameen by Robert Hutcheon.) Lim_txt.indd 475 28/12/2010 4:17 PM Forgotten Souls 476 trader in Canton. Like his brothers, Albert retired, aged twenty-seven with his fortune made, to a country estate where he bred shorthorn cattle. Finally, Sidney and seventeen-year-old Ernest Deacon were sent east to continue to boost the family fortunes. The brothers needed to diversify due to the changing tastes in tea that saw Chinese tea being neglected in favour of Indian tea. They fell back on acquiring agencies for British companies who wished to be represented in China. Among the agencies appearing on the Deacons’ brass plate over the office door on Shameen Island, Canton, were China Traders Insurance, the China Fire Insurance, London & Provincial Maritime Insurance, Union Insurance Society and Lloyds. In shipping they represented the P. & O., Ben Line, Castle Line, Canadian Pacific, Boston Steamship and Bank Line among others. The firm’s newfound prosperity had little to do with tea. Sidney became wealthy and popular in Canton society. His five-hundred-piece dinner set, with the Deacon coat of arms engraved on every piece, attested to his elevated social and financial position. Yet life became too much for him and he took a gun and shot himself in his bedroom aged only thirty. This left Ernest Deacon junior to carry on the family name. He remained a senior partner for fourteen more years with a total of service in the company of twenty-nine years. He finally caught dysentery from drinking contaminated water at the age of forty-six and was sent to Hong Kong to be nursed where he succumbed on 1 July 1890. His death ended the Deacon family’s association with a firm that was until recently still trading in the territory. The Hong Kong & Whampoa Dock Company In the boardroom of the Hong Kong & Whampoa Dock Company, matters at the turn of the century did not proceed with proper trust and respect between the directors and the shareholders, who had good reasons to suspect that the directors were lining their own pockets at the shareholders’ expense. By 1901, the shareholders had had enough of the company’s profits being siphoned off to be used for the benefit of the old boy network of expatriate directors. Their arcane methods of accounting successfully hid the leakage of money that the shareholders rightly thought should be used to increase their meagre dividends. Their shortcomings were highlighted on the pages of the Hong Kong Telegraph by Robert Fraser-Smith. Out of 530 shares, 102 were owned by the increasingly wealthy Chinese, and more belonged to members of the Lim_txt.indd 476 28/12/2010 4:17 PM Industry at the T urn of...