A. Shelton Hooper

A. Shelton Hooper.

Augustus Shelton Hooper (September 1859 – 13 June 1936) was a Hong Kong English civil servant, architect, member of the Sanitary Board and Licensing Board, and secretary of the Hongkong Land Investment and Agency Co. Limited.

Biography

Hooper was born in September 1859 to the seventh son of Henry Wilcocks Hooper, a solicitor & coroner for Exeter, and Julia Evelina Richards.[1] He was educated at the Newton Abbot College, Devon.[2]

He came to Hong Kong in September 1886 as a surveyor of the Land Office of the Hong Kong government.[3] He was later appointed an assessor and municipal rates valuer in 1888[4] until his resigned in 1889[5] and joined the Hongkong Land Investment and Agency Co. Limited[6] as the first secretary, being a land expert from the government.[7]

Hooper was made Justice of the Peace in 1890.[8] In 1893, he was made the agent and trustee for the Hong Kong and South China Masonic Benevolence Fund when it was established by the government under the Masonic Benevolence Fund Incorporation Ordinance.[9] By 1905, he was an authorised architect.[10]

He attempted to run for the Sanitary Board election in 1891 and in 1903 but was not elected. He successfully gained the seat in the 1906 Sanitary Board election and also the Licensing Board in 1910, where he was re-elected in 1916 and 1919. He served on the Sanitary Board until his retirement in 1911 due to his disagreement with government's decision of changing the Scavenging and Conservancy by-laws.[11]

During his service on the Sanitary Board, Hooper was appointed by Governor Matthew Nathan to the Public Health and Regulations Ordinance Commission in 1906 to inquiry into the alleged corruption and bribery in the Sanitary Department,[12] which led to the amendment of the Public Health and Building Ordinance to reform the Sanitary Board in 1908.[13]

Hooper was a prominent Freemason in the colony, member of the Hong Kong Club and also President of the Hong Kong Devonian Society.[2]

Hooper retired after thirty years service as secretary of the Hongkong Land Investment and Agency Co., Ltd. and left Hong Kong on 1 January 1920 and was granted a pension.[7] He died in a London nursing house on 13 June 1936 at the age of 74.[14]

Personal life

Hooper was a member of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club and Hong Kong Cricket Club. He resided at "Rougemont", MacDonnell Road. He married to Sarah Hooper who died on 31 August 1942 in Matlock. They had one son and two daughters.[2] One of their daughters named Christine Jessie Shelton Hooper, who married Colonel John Urmson Hope, son of Maj.-Gen. John Edward Hope and Mary Urmson, on 27 November 1907 and had children named Christine Mary Shelton Hope and John Patrick Molesworth Hope.[15] Dorothy Annette Shelton Hooper, another daughter of them, married to John Farrar Macgregor at St. John's Cathedral on 30 August 1911.[16] Their son was manager of the Manila Wine Merchants, a subsidiary of Caldbeck, Macgregor and Co.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Hooper – Family History".
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Mr. Shelton Hooper Passes". The Hong Kong Telegraph. 15 June 1936. p. 13.
  3. ↑ The Hongkong Government Gazette (PDF). 11 September 1886 http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1886/668200.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ The Hongkong Government Gazette (PDF). 12 May 1888. p. 484 http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1888/661255.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ↑ The Hongkong Government Gazette (PDF). 18 May 1889. p. 457 http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1889/658576.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ "Collapse of Houses" (PDF): 3–4.
  7. 1 2 "Farewell Shelton Hooper". The China Mail. 3 January 1920. p. 1.
  8. ↑ The Hongkong Government Gazette (PDF). 1 February 1890. p. 91 http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1890/654766.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑ The Hongkong Government Gazette (PDF). 1 April 1893. p. 255 http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1893/646846.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ The Hongkong Government Gazette (PDF). 1 January 1905. p. 32 http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1905/538698.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ↑ "Mr. Shelton Hooper retires". The China Mail. 24 July 1911. p. 6.
  12. ↑ "Report of the Commission Appointed by His Excellency the Governor to Enquiry into and Report on the Administration of the Sanitary and Building Regulations Exacted by the Public Heatlth and Buildings Ordinance 1903, and the Existence of Corruption Among the Officials Charged with the Administration of the Aforesaid Regulations" (PDF).
  13. ↑ Choa, Gerald Hugh (2000). The Life and Times of Sir Kai Ho Kai: A Prominent Figure in Nineteenth-century Hong Kong. Chinese University Press. pp. 138–9. ISBN 9622018734.
  14. ↑ "Mr. A. Shelton-Hooper". The China Mail. 15 June 1936. p. 12.
  15. ↑ "Augustus Shelton Hooper". The Peerage.
  16. ↑ "Untitled". The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser. 15 September 1911. p. 9.
Political offices
Preceded by
H. E. Pollock
Ahmet Rumjahn		 Member of the Sanitary Board
1906–1912 		Succeeded by
F. B. L. Bowley
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