Brook Bernacchi
Brook Bernacchi JP | |
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Member of the Urban Council | |
In office 31 May 1952 – 31 March 1981 | |
Preceded by | New seat |
Succeeded by | Francis Cahine |
In office 1 April 1983 – 31 March 1986 | |
Preceded by | New constituency |
Succeeded by | Cheung Wai-ping |
Constituency | Shau Kei Wan |
In office 1 April 1989 – 31 March 1995 | |
Preceded by | Augustine Tong |
Succeeded by | To Boon-man |
Constituency | Shau Kei Wan |
Personal details | |
Born | London, United Kingdom | 22 January 1922
Died | 22 September 1996 United Kingdom | (aged 74)
Political party | Reform Club of Hong Kong |
Spouse | Patricia Sheelagh |
Children | 3 |
Alma mater | Westminster School University of Cambridge |
Occupation | Barrister |
Brook Bernacchi | |||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 貝納褀 | ||||||||
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Brook Antony Bernacchi
Early life
Bernacchi was born in London in 1922 and was educated in
Political career
In 1949, Bernacchi founded the
The club, under Bernacchi's chairmanship, was involved in grassroots politics, calling for public housing for all, as thousands of refugees flooded into Hong Kong from the Communist uprising in China. He gained a reputation for outspokenness.[1] For instance, he opposed Financial Secretary Sir Philip Haddon-Cave and his "positive non-interventionism", criticising him for cutting expenditure on the overdue housing programme.[2] He also helped set up various groups including the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers and the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society.[1]
For his public services, he was awarded officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1965.[3]
He and
Bernacchi showed rare support to the colonial government during the
Bernacchi had also been one of the leading voices for constitutional reform in Hong Kong since the 1950s. In 1978, he wrote to the
Seeing the increasing frustration with the limited franchise and the unwillingness of the government to introduce more elected offices, Bernacchi threatened to boycott the Urban Council elections in 1979. He later on stepped down in 1981, saying he wanted "no more to do with it" when the Government drew back from a pledge of universal suffrage. He also asked rhetorically, "how can one purport to represent nearly six million people in Hong Kong when you have been elected by only 6,000 voters?"[8] He nevertheless led the club again in the following election, failing to win his seat, but was returned in 1983. In the 1986 election, Bernacchi again lost his seat, to Cheung Wai-ping, in Shau Kei Wan, before returning yet again in 1989.[1]
In 1994, he became one of two foreigners appointed Hong Kong district affairs advisers to Beijing.[1] As political reform and electoral politics developed rapidly in the last years of colonial rule, Bernacchi announced his retirement from the council in 1995, complaining that the council was becoming increasingly politicised.
Personal life and death
He married Patricia Sheelagh Heath in 1970. He had three stepchildren, Robert Whitehead,
He became the first Westerner to settle on Lantau Island in 1948. Having been inspired by the tea farms he visited in Burma during the Second World War, he set up the tea plantation at Ngong Ping next to the Po Lin Monastery. In 1973, he became a chairman of New Lantao Motor Bus Company Ltd. He was also one of the original founders of the Hong Kong Sea School, in Stanley, Hong Kong, which was set up to train young disadvantaged boys for a career in the Navy.
Bernacchi developed a
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Tacey, Elisabeth (23 September 1996). "Lawyer and fighter for rights Brook Bernacchi dies at 74". South China Morning Post.
- ^ Ortmann, Stephan (2009). Politics and Change in Singapore and Hong Kong: Containing Contention. Routledge. p. 80.
- ^ "No. 43667". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1965. p. 5495.
- ^ Ortmann, Stephan (2009). Politics and Change in Singapore and Hong Kong: Containing Contention. Routledge. p. 41.
- ^ Pepper, Suzanne (2008). Keeping Democracy at Bay: Hong Kong and the Challenge of Chinese Political Reform. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 144.
- S2CID 154693338.
- ^ Kwarteng, Kwasi (2011). Ghosts of Empire: Britain's Legacies in the Modern World. PublicAffairs.
- ^ Ortmann, Stephan (2009). Politics and Change in Singapore and Hong Kong: Containing Contention. Routledge. p. 184.