Catchick Paul Chater

Sir Catchick Paul Chater
Sir Paul Chater in 1924
Senior Unofficial Member of the Executive Council
In office 8 September 1896 – 27 May 1926
Appointed by	William Robinson
Governor	William Robinson Henry Arthur Blake Matthew Nathan Frederick Lugard Francis Henry May Reginald Edward Stubbs Cecil Clementi
Succeeded by	Sir Henry Pollock
Senior Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council
In office 1 May 1900 – 16 January 1906
Appointed by	Henry Arthur Blake
Governor	Henry Arthur Blake Matthew Nathan
Preceded by	Emanuel Raphael Belilios
Succeeded by	Sir Kai Ho
Personal details
Born	Khachik Pogose Astwachatoor 8 September 1846 Calcutta, India
Died	27 May 1926(1926-05-27) (aged 79) British Hong Kong
Spouse(s)	Maria Christine Pearson
Occupation	Businessman
Religion	Armenian Apostolic
Website	[1]

Sir Catchick Paul Chater CMG (Armenian: Փոլ Չաթեր; Chinese: 遮打; 8 September 1846 – 27 May 1926), was a prominent British businessman of Armenian descent in colonial Hong Kong.

Chater was born Khachik Pogose Astwachatoor (Armenian: Խաչիկ Պողոս Աստվածատրյան) in Calcutta, British India, one of thirteen offspring of Armenian parents Miriam and Chater Paul Chater. His father was a member of the Indian civil service.

Chater was orphaned at the age of seven, and he gained entry into the La Martiniere College in Calcutta on a scholarship. He later became a benefactor of the school when, in the early 1910s he made the single biggest donation to any institution or organisation whilst still alive, donating eleven lakhs Rupees to the desperately struggling school, thus allowing it to avoid certain closure. To honour his contribution to the school, Sir Paul Chater's name was included in the school prayer. In 1864, he moved to Hong Kong from Calcutta and lived with the family of his sister Anna and sister's husband Jordan Paul Jordan.

In the early days in Hong Kong, he was an assistant at the Bank of Hindustan, China and Japan. Later, with the aid of the Sassoon family, he set up business as an exchange broker, resigned from the bank, and traded gold bullion and land on his own account. He took sea-bed soundings at night in a sampan and was thus instrumental in plotting the reclamation of Victoria Harbour. He is credited with a pivotal role in the colonial government's success in acquiring lands then held by the military, at a cost of two million pounds sterling.

In 1868, he and Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody formed Chater & Mody, a largely successful business partnership in Hong Kong, although the firm's Hong Kong Milling Company (aka Rennie's Mill) failed in 1908 and resulted in the suicide of Albert Rennie.