David Fortune Landale

David Fortune "Taffy" Landale, JP (; 7 November 1905 – 15 December 1970), was a British-Hong Kong entrepreneur and politician who was chairman and managing director of Jardine Matheson & Co. from 1945 to 1951, during which he was appointed by the Hong Kong government as an unofficial member of the Executive Council from 1946 to 1951, as well as the senior unofficial member of the Legislative Council from 1946 to 1950. Later in his life he settled in the United Kingdom, where he was chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland between 1955 and 1965.

Landale had a close connection with Jardine Matheson. His father, David Landale, was also chairman and managing director of the firm, and the Landales were distantly related to the family of Dr William Jardine, who was the founder of the Jardine trading house. Landale's chairmanship of Jardine Matheson coincided with the outbreak of the Chinese Communist Revolution that followed the end of the Second World War. The turbulence prevented the firm from reviving the profitable China business that it had enjoyed in the past. In 1947, he founded the Hong Kong Airways with a hope of developing the firm's civil aviation business. The attempt, however, was hit by the growing instability of the region.

As the senior unofficial member of the Legislative Council, Landale was an active critic of the Hong Kong government who was noted for his unsuccessful attempt to oppose the government's plan of re-introducing income tax after the war in 1947. Besides, he moved a motion in the Council in 1949 to debate the "Young Plan". The plan, which proposed for the idea of setting up a Municipal Council, was highly questioned by him and other unofficial members, who believed that reforming the Legislative Council would be a better alternative. Nevertheless, having considered the regional instability and the lukewarm response from the general public, the British government announced in 1952 that no major constitutional reform would take place in Hong Kong.

Biography

Early years Landale was born in the Jardine Matheson office in the Shanghai International Settlement, China, on 7 November 1905. His brother, a pilot of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, died in a plane crash in the North Sea when he was flying to Hanover, Germany, on a military mission in 1941. His body was never found. Sir William belonged to the Applegirth branch of the Jardine family and he was a distant relative of Dr William Jardine, the founder of the Jardine trading house.

Early in his life, Landale, who was also known as "Taffy" by his relatives and friends, attended Eton College, and later studied at Balliol College, Oxford. While at Eton and Oxford, he was a keen sports player, serving as a member of the cricket team of Eton and captain of the university rugby team. He started from the cash desk, spending his time mainly in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and was eventually appointed a director of the firm in 1936, a position that he held until his death in 1970. As a member of the board, he was also appointed to the directorships of a number of subsidiary and affiliated companies of Jardine Matheson, such as the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company Ltd. He was appointed an unofficial Justice of the Peace by the Hong Kong government in 1937. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, he was enlisted to the Hong Kong Defence Reserve. Yet, he was permitted to quit the Reserve in the following year to join the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He was stationed on HMS Queen Elizabeth and saw active service until 1943, when he retired from the Volunteer Reserve as a lieutenant and was appointed as the Minister of War Transport Representative in the Middle East.

In 1945, Landale succeeded J. J. Paterson to become chairman and managing director of Jardine Matheson with a view to re-establishing the firm's business interests in Hong Kong, China, Japan and other places in the Far East. His chairmanship, however, coincided with the outbreak of the Chinese Communist Revolution that followed the end of the Second World War. During the turbulence, the Canton branch office of Jardine Matheson was burnt down in an anti-British protest in 1948. Despite that, by the time when the People's Republic of China was founded by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, the firm still managed to maintain its China head office in Shanghai as well as its branch offices in Hankou, Fuzhou, Qingdao, Tianjin, Canton and Shantou, employing some 20,000 employees and having a total asset of around 30 million pound sterling in the mainland. In 1947, the firm reached an agreement with British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) to establish Hong Kong Airways as an attempt to develop Hong Kong's civil aviation business. At first, the airline was a subsidiary of BOAC and Landale was appointed to chair the board of directors. Nevertheless, like the firm's other businesses in China, the airline was badly hit by the instability in China and Korea as its flight services to the two countries, which formed the major network of the airline, were forced to be either discontinued or suspended.

Political career Apart from his business interests, Landale was appointed an unofficial member of the Executive Council, from 1946 to 1951, and the senior unofficial member of the Legislative Council, from 1946 to 1950, by the Hong Kong government, being one of the first unofficial members appointed when civilian government resumed after the war in May 1946. As an active critic of the government, he openly criticised the government in the Legislative Council meetings for a number of times, such as to blame the government for the perfunctory way it compiled the annual Budget and for its failure to maintain effective communication between Hong Kong and Whitehall in London, of which he thought was a key factor to achieve good governance. In 1947, the government started to require an increase in the extent of developments on some of the Rural Buildings Lots in offering re-grants to landowners, as a measure to cope with the influx of refugees from mainland China and the housing shortage. The measure was complained by Landale as oppressive to the landowners due to the higher construction costs that they had to bear. Landale was one of the members who were appointed to the War Revenue Committee by the government in October 1939, which was tasked to offer advice on the proposed new tax. In response to the tax proposal, Landale requested that it should be put on hold for a year to have sufficient time for further review, but his request was turned down by the government. After heated debates, the bill to reintroduce the tax was read a third time and was passed in the Legislative Council in May 1947, notwithstanding that it was rarely voted against by three unofficial members, namely Chau Tsun-nin, Chau Sik-nin and Leo d'Almada e Castro. The plan was named after the Governor of Hong Kong Sir Mark Young, who unveiled it in 1946. In the debate, he criticised the government for deliberately slowing down the pace of constitutional reform. During his chairmanship, he was also appointed director of a number of firms which had close ties with the Royal Bank of Scotland, such as the Northern Assurance Co. Ltd., Glyn, Mills & Co. and William Deacon's Bank Ltd., etc.

Although Landale lived in his hometown of Dalswinton, Dumfries, Scotland, he continued to travel to London frequently to manage his business interests. In his leisure time he was a keen farmer and forester in his hometown.

Personal life

Landale was married in London to Louisa Mary Dorothy Charlotte Forbes (1904–1956), the younger daughter of Charles William Forbes of Callendar House, on 7 December 1929. The couple had one son and three daughters: Janet Stewart Landale (30 August 1930 – 1 January 2010); Sir David William Neil Landale (27 May 1934 – 25 March 2016), a director of Jardine Matheson between 1967 and 1975; Linda Louisa Landale (born 2 November 1937); and Kirsteen Forbes Landale (born 28 May 1944)

Louisa was the Chief Commissioner of the Hong Kong Girl Guides Association from 1948 to 1951. After her death in 1956, Landale was married in London, secondly, to Beatrice Helen Bengson Lund, the widow of K. Lund.

Honours Unofficial Justice of the Peace (J.P.) (1937 )