Catchick Paul Chater

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Sir Catchick Paul Chater (遮打;1846-1926) was a businessman in Hong Kong. He was born in Calcutta, India of Armenian parents Chater Paul Chater and Miriam Chater. His father was a member of the Indian Civil Service. Sir Paul was educated at the famous La Martiniere College in Calcutta of which he later became a benefactor. To honour his contribution to the school, Sir Paul Chater's name was included in the School Prayer. In the 1860s, 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. In 1868, he and Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody formed Chater & Mody, and turned out a successful business partners in Hong Kong.

He helped Paul Manson to establish Dairy Farm, and he established Hong Kong Land with James Johnstone Keswick, the taipan of Jardine Matheson.

Sir Paul was enthusiastic in two sports. He played for the Hong Kong Cricket Club first eleven, and was a Thoroughbred horse racing enthusiast and set up the Chater Stable in Hong Kong in 1872 that won many races at Happy Valley Racecourse. The Hong Kong Champions & Chater Cup, the Group One third leg of the Hong Kong Triple Crown, is named in his honor.

Other titles and positions held by Chater:

Chair of the Perseverance Lodge 1873
steward at the Hong Kong Jockey Club
Senior Justice of the Peace in Hong Kong
Chairman of the Board of Stewards of the Hong Kong Jockey Club
District Grand Master of Hong Kong and South China
director of Dairy Farm Co. Ltd set up by Patrick Manson 1886
member of the Legislative Council 1887
Consul for Siam in Hong Kong
Treasurer and Chairman of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Committee 1887
member of the Legion of Honor by the French Government at Tonkin 1892
member of the Public Lighting Committee 1896
member of the Governor’s Executive Council 1896
Chairman of the Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Committee 1897
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George 1897
Knighted. Became Sir Paul Chater 1902
honorary degree of LL.D. by the University of Hong Kong for services as the Honorary Treasurer 1923