Senior Unofficial Member

Senior Unofficial Member （首席非官守議員） denotes the highest-ranking unofficial member of the Legislative Council and Executive Council of Hong Kong under Colonial British rule, which supposedly represented the opinions of the unofficial members of same to the Governor of Hong Kong.

As Chinese council members were frequently referred to as "Chinese Representatives", the senior member was also known as the "Senior Chinese Representative" or Senior Chinese Unofficial Member (首席華人非官守議員）.

1 Background
2 Statistical overview
3 ExCo Senior Unofficial Member
4 LegCo Senior Unofficial Member
5 See also
6 Footnotes
7 References
8 External links

Background

The Executive Council of Hong Kong and Legislative Council of Hong Kong were set up in 1843 composed of colonial administrators. The councils were initially chaired by the Governor of Hong Kong.The colony's subjects remained unrepresented until 1850, when the government appointed two businessmen to Legco, which included David Jardine of Jardines as the first Senior Unofficial Member to LegCo in the history of Hong Kong。It was not until 1896, on his appointment to ExCo that Catchick Paul Chater became the Senior Unofficial Member there.

Historically, ExCo Senior Unofficial Member importance greatly exceeded that of the LegCo counterpart, thus their term of office were longer. Before the Second World War, there have been only three Senior Unofficial Members in ExCo, whereas there have been four LegCo Senior Unofficial Members.Initially, membership was restricted to foreigners, ethnic Chinese were admitted at a later date. The first ethnic Chinese to be appointed LegCo Senior Unofficial Member was Ho Kai, who held the post from 1906 to 1914. The first ethnic Chinese to be appointed ExCo Senior Unofficial Member was Chau Tsun-nin, who held the post from 1953 to 1959.Prior to Chau Tsun-nin, Chow Shouson was also ExCo Senior Unofficial Member when he stood in for three months following Henry Pollock.

The ExCo Senior Unofficial Member would customarily receive knighthoods, although their LegCo counterparts would not.Pre-war ExCo and LegCo Senior Unofficial Member typically served four to five year terms, renewable. Their seniority implied they would not remain as ordinary Legco/Exco members at the end of their terms, but would leave the council on expiry.

In 1985, indirect elections were introduced for the Legislative Council. In order to avoid confusion, Sir Edward Youde renamed ExCo and LegCo Senior Unofficial Member to "Senior Member" of ExCo and LegCo. The introduction in 1991 of direct elections to LegCo more than doubled the number of legislators. The directly elected members refused to take orders from the Senior Member. Allen Lee, senior member at the time was unable to represent the council with a single voice and would occasionally have run-ins with the directly-elected members. In 1992, Governor David Wilson abolished the post. In 1997, after the Transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong, the post 'Senior Unofficial Member of ExCo' was renamed 'Convenor of the Unofficial Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong'.

During colonial times, the Urban Council also had a post entitled 'Senior Unofficial Member', with a similar role. However, its importance was considerably less than its ExCo and LegCo counterparts.

Statistical overview

In total there have been 26 and 11 Senior Unofficial Members respectively of LegCo and ExCo. Of these, six have served as Senior Unofficial Members in both councils: Catchick Paul Chater, Sir Henry Pollock, Chau Tsun-nin, Kan Yuet-keung, Sze-yuen Chung and Lydia Dunn.

The longest serving Senior Unofficial Members of LegCo were Sir Henry Pollock and Phineas Ryrie, who sat for 24 and 22 years respectively； The three who served the shortest duration were George Lyall, John Dent and Kwok Chan, who sat for one year. Lydia Dunn was the only female; Dhun Jehangir Ruttonjee was the only Parsee； Roger Lobo was the only Portuguese.

The longest serving Senior Unofficial Members of ExCo was Catchick Paul Chater, who served a total of 30 years；the shortest tenures were Sir Sidney Gordon and J. J. Peterson, each serving under one year. Lydia Dunn was the first female ExCo Senior Unofficial Member. Chater was the only Senior Unofficial Member to die in office； Chau Tsun-nin and Chau Sik-nin were the only Senior Unofficial Members drawn from the same clan.

ExCo Senior Unofficial Member

Order	Senior Unofficial Member (ExCo)	Term start	Term end
1	Catchick Paul Chater 1900 to 1906 LegCo Senior Unofficial Member	1896	1926
2	Sir Henry Pollock（Sir Henry Pollock） Concurrently LegCo Senior Unofficial Member Chow Shouson stood in between September and December 1928	1926	December 1941
Japanese occupation of Hong Kong
a^[1]	Sir Henry Pollock	December 1941	March 1946
b^[2]	J. J. Peterson	March 1946	April 1946
c^[3]	Sir Robert Kotewall	April 1946	May 1946
Restored after defeat of Japan
3	Arthur Morse Later Sir Arthur Morse	May 1946	1953
4	Chau Tsun-nin Previously LegCo Senior Unofficial Member	1953	1959
5	Sir Chau Sik-nin Previously LegCo Senior Unofficial Member	1959	1962
6	Albert Rodrigues	1962	1974
7	Yuet Keung Kan Previously LegCo Senior Unofficial Member	1974	March 1980
8	Sir Sidney Gordon	March 1980	August 1980
9	Sir Sze-yuen Chung Previously LegCo Senior Unofficial Member	August 1980	1988
10	Lydia Dunn Previously LegCo Senior Unofficial Member	1988	1995
11	Rosanna Wong Yick-ming	1995	1997
1997 Transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China

LegCo Senior Unofficial Member

Order	Senior Unofficial Member (LegCo)	Term start	Term end
1	David Jardine	1850	1857
2	Joseph Jardine	1857	1860
3	George Lyall	1860	1861
4	Alexander Perceval	1861	1864
5	Francis Chomley	1864	1866
6	John Dent	1866	1867
7	Hugh Bold Gibb	1867	1870
8	Phineas Ryrie	1870	1892
9	Emanuel Raphael Belilios	1892	1900
10	Catchick Paul Chater concurrently Senior Unofficial Member at LegCo	1900	1906
11	Dr. Ho Kai	1906	1914
12	Wei A. Yuk	1914	1917
13	Sir Henry Pollock 1926 to 1941 LegCo Senior Unofficial Member Chow Shouson stood in between September and December 1928	1917	1941
Japanese occupation of Hong Kong
14	D. F. Landale	1946	1950
15	Chau Tsun-nin Later became ExCo Senior Unofficial Member	1950	1953
16	Chau Sik-nin Later became ExCo Senior Unofficial Member	1953	1959
17	Ngan Shing-Kwan	1959	1961
18	Kwok Chan	1961	1962
19	Dhun Jehangir Ruttonjee	1962	1968
20	Kan Yuet-Keung Later became ExCo Senior Unofficial Member	1968	1972
21	Woo Pak-Chuen	1974
22	Chung Sze-yuen Later became ExCo Senior Unofficial Member	1974	1978
23	Oswald Victor Cheung	1978	1981
24	Roger Lobo	1981	1985
25	Lydia Dunn Later became ExCo Senior Unofficial Member	1985	1988
26	Allen Lee	1988	1992
Abolished in 1992

Footnotes

^ 沒有履職。
^ 戰前委任非官守議員，因戰事關係，事實上沒有履任Senior Unofficial Member 。
^ 與上兩位一樣，都是在戰前委任非官守議員，因戰事關係，在戰時沒有履職。Sir Robert Kotewall爵士任期本應在 1946 7 屆滿，但他提早於 1946 5 民政恢復後不久請辭。

References

Hong Kong Government Gazette, Hong Kong: GOVERNMENT OF HONG KONG, 1852–1941.
Hansard, Hong Kong: HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, 1884–1992.
〈港府昨正式發表ExCo 議員名單〉，《工商日報》第四頁， 1946 5月8日。
〈ExCo 議員已全部委出〉，《工商日報》第四頁， 1946 5月30日。
Hong Kong Government Gazette, Hong Kong: GOVERNMENT OF HONG KONG, 1951–1959.
Hong Kong Annual Report, Hong Kong: Government Press, 1951–1969.
Endacott, G. B., Government and people in Hong Kong, 1841–1962: A Constitutional History, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1964.
鄭棟材，CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE COUNCILS IN HONG KONG UP TO 1941, 29 April 1968.
鍾士元，《香港回歸歷程－鍾士元回憶錄》，香港：中文大學出版社，2001 。
Li, Simon, FACT SHEET-"THE FIRST" in Legislative Council History, Hong Kong: HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, 13 January 2003.

External links

CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE COUNCILS IN HONG KONG UP TO 1941

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