Loke Wan Tho
| Loke Wan Tho | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Native name | 陆运涛 |
| Born | 14 June 1915 Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya |
| Died | 20 June 1964 (aged 49) Taichung, Taiwan |
| Cause of death | Plane crash |
| Spouse(s) | Kay White (divorced) Christina Lee (divorced) Mavis Chew (m. Sep 1963) |
| Parent(s) | Father Loke Yew Mother Lim Cheng Kim |
| Relatives |
Sisters Loke Yuen Theng (Mrs Choo Kok Leong) Loke Yuen Peng (Lady Percy McNiece) |
Loke Wan Tho (simplified Chinese: 陆运涛; traditional Chinese: 陸運濤; pinyin: Lù Yùn Tāo; 14 June 1915 – 20 June 1964), born in Kuala Lumpur, was a Singaporean business magnate, ornithologist, and photographer. He was the founder of Cathay Organisation in Singapore and Malaysia, and Motion Picture and General Investments Limited (MP&GI) in Hong Kong.
Born in Kuala Lumpur on 14 June 1915, Dato Loke Wan Tho was the 9th child of Loke Yew. Loke Yew had come to Malaya in 1858 as a poor youth of 11 years of age and by his death had amassed a fortune to make him one of the richest men in Malaya. Wan Tho was 2 years old when his father died. His early education was at Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur, a school set up by the British for Chinese boys which counted Loke Yew as one of its founders.
By reason of his delicate health, he was taken by his mother Loke Cheng Kim together with his two younger sisters to school at Chillon College in Montreux, Switzerland in 1929. He was the Swiss County (Vaud) long jump champion in 1932. He then went up to King's College, Cambridge where he obtained an Honour's degree in English Literature and History in 1936. English literature and poetry henceforward became his steadfast companions throughout his life and it was known that in his minimal personal kit on all his ornithological expeditions was always to be found some of his favourite anthologies. For a brief period after that, he was at the London School of Economics. However the winds of war were blowing in Europe and he returned to Malaya just before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Escaping the Japanese in February 1942 on a ship called Nora Moller, Dato Loke Wan Tho did not escape unscathed as a bomb from a Japanese aircraft sank his ship in the Strait of Banka. He was rescued from the sea, temporarily blinded and severely burned. He was hospitalised in Batavia (Jakarta) and then evacuated to India. However, he was fortunate in that shortly after he arrived in Bombay, he was introduced to the famous Indian ornithologist Dr Salim Ali, who was to become a lifetime friend and a frequent companion on many major expeditions. It was to Dr Salim Ali's credit that Dato Loke's passion for ornithology developed. As Dato Loke himself wrote in his book A Company of Birds of his friend : "Under the guidance of an expert (Salim Ali) my interest in birds which hitherto had been but of a dilettante kind blossomed into a deeper passion."
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