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Paul Chater

Sir Catchick Paul Chater
Solemn studio portrait of a distinguished bald gentleman with white sideburns wearing a 3-piece suit; left arm on armrest of a chair
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]
Paul Chater
Traditional Chinese 遮打

Sir Catchick Paul Chater KBE 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.


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