Alexander Grantham

Sir Alexander William George Herder Grantham, GCMG (Chinese: 葛量洪; 1899–1978) was a British colonial administrator who governed Hong Kong and Fiji.

Sir Alexander Grantham GCMG
22nd Governor of Hong Kong
In office 25 July 1947 – 31 December 1957
Monarch	George VI Elizabeth II
Colonial Secretary	David Mercer MacDougall John Fearns Nicoll Sir Robert Brown Black Edgeworth Beresford David
Preceded by	Sir Mark Aitchison Young
Succeeded by	Sir Robert Brown Black
17th Governor of Fiji
In office 1 January 1945 – 1947
Monarch	George VI
Preceded by	Sir Philip Mitchell
Succeeded by	Sir Brian Freeston
15th High Commissioner for the Western Pacific
In office 1 January 1945 – 1947
Monarch	George VI
Preceded by	(vacant)
Succeeded by	Sir Brian Freeston
Personal details
Born	15 March 1899 London, England
Died	4 October 1978 (aged 79) London, England
Citizenship	British
Spouse(s)	Maurine Samson 1925-1970 (her death) M. E. Lumley 1972-1978 (his death)
Relations	Warren de la Rue Thomas de la Rue Sir William Grantham
Alma mater	Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Pembroke College, Cambridge, Imperial Defence College
Occupation	Soldier, Colonial administrator
Chinese name
Chinese	葛量洪
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Gě Liànghóng Yue: Cantonese Jyutping got3 loeng4 hung4

Early life, colonial administration career

Grantham was born on 15 March 1899 and was educated at Wellington, the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and Pembroke College, Cambridge.

He was gazetted in the 18th Hussars in 1917 and joined the Colonial Administrative Service in Hong Kong in 1922. He was the Deputy Clerk of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong for a short period in 1933. In 1934, he was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple and attended the Imperial Defence College later that year.

Grantham became Colonial Secretary of Bermuda from 1935 to 1938, and of Jamaica from 1938 to 1941. He then served as Chief Secretary of Nigeria from 1941 to 1944 and as Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for the Western Pacific from 1945 to 1947.

Immediately after his tenure as High Commissioner ended, he became Governor of Hong Kong, until 1957. He opposed his predecessor, Sir Mark Young's proposal of expanding social services on the grounds that the local Chinese population cared little about social welfare.[1]

Legacy of governorship

His tenure marked the beginning of a unitary housing policy by the Hong Kong Government. In December 1953, a fire burned down a large slum area in Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon, killing nine and leaving many homeless. It was under Grantham's administration that the government began to build settlement houses for the homeless. From that point on, the government was deeply involved in low-cost public housing programmes that allowed many Hong Kong people who could not afford to own a flat to live in government-owned housing estates at relatively low cost. The housing programme eventually evolved over time to allow people to buy low-cost housing and receive favourable loans to buy their own houses.

Honours

• Honorary Fellow, Pembroke College, Cambridge
• Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree, Hong Kong University
• CMG, 1941
• KCMG, 1945
• GCMG, 1951

Personal life

Grantham grew up partly in Tientsin where his father practiced Law, both his father and brother was killed in World War I. His mother then remarried Johan Wilhelm Normann Munthe and the family moved tho Beijing. He was married twice. His first marriage, in 1925, was to the well-travelled Maurine Samson, daughter of the late Amos Roland Samson and Liberty "Libby" Cole (Neal) of Champaign County, Illinois. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, she had lived in Boise, Seattle, San Francisco and Honolulu before their marriage. The Governor's official yacht, a Hong Kong health clinic and a locomotive were all named "Lady Maurine" after her.[2] After she died in 1970, Grantham married Mrs M. E. Lumley in 1972. Grantham died on 4 October 1978.

Places/facilities named after him

• Grantham Hospital in Aberdeen, Hong Kong
• Grantham College of Education in Hong Kong
• Alexander Grantham, a fireboat of the Fire Services Department of the Government of Hong Kong
• Sir Alexander, an EMD G12 Diesel-electric locomotive No. 51, introduced in Hong Kong in 1955 and on display at the Hong Kong Railway Museum[2]

Bibliography

• Alexander Grantham (1965). Via ports, from Hong Kong to Hong Kong. Hong Kong University Press.

See also

• History of Hong Kong

References

1. Goodstadt, Leo F. (2004). "The Rise and Fall of Social, Economic and Political Reforms in Hong Kong, 1930–1955". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch. 44: 66.
2. The Kowloon Canton Railway (British Section) Part 5 – The Post War Years (1945 to 1978), Tymon, IHHKG, 9 June 2016

External links

• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Sir Alexander Grantham" is available at the Internet Archive