Robert Black (colonial administrator)

Sir Robert 'Robin' Brown Black GCMG OBE (Chinese: 柏立基, 3 June 1906 – 29 October 1999) was a British colonial administrator. Born in Edinburgh and educated at George Watson's College and the University of Edinburgh, he would spend three decades overseas and return to Britain in the 1960s. He was Governor of Hong Kong from 1958 – 1964, Governor of Singapore from 1955 – 1957 and as Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong from 1952 – 1955.

Sir Robert Black GCMG OBE
23rd Governor of Hong Kong
In office 23 January 1958 – 31 March 1964
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Colonial Secretary	Edgeworth Beresford David Claude Bramall Burgess Edmund Brinsley Teesdale
Preceded by	Alexander Grantham
Succeeded by	David Trench
3rd Governor of Singapore
In office 30 June 1955 – 9 December 1957
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Chief Secretary	William Goode
Preceded by	William Goode (Acting)
Succeeded by	William Goode
19th Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong
In office 20 February 1952 – 30 March 1955
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	John Fearns Nicoll
Succeeded by	Edgeworth Beresford David
Personal details
Born	(1906-06-03)3 June 1906 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	29 October 1999(1999-10-29) (aged 93) Dunedin Hospital, Reading, Berkshire, England
Spouse(s)	Anne Black
Children	Barbara Black Kathryn Black
Profession	colonial administrator
Chinese name
Chinese	柏立基
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Bó Lìjī Yue: Cantonese Jyutping baak3 lap6 gei1

Robert Black College of the University of Hong Kong was named after him.

Colonial administration career

Sir Robert Brown Black served in the administration of Britain's colonies for more than 30 years. Entering the colonial service, Black was assigned to Trinidad, but the remainder of his postings were in Asia.

During his posting in North Borneo Black was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps and involved in guerilla resistance against the Japanese. He was captured in 1942 and spent the remainder of World War II in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.

After the war ended, he returned to the colonial service and served in North Borneo and Hong Kong before moving on to Singapore as Governor (1955–57). Subsequently, he became Governor of Hong Kong from 1958 to 1964.

Governor of Hong Kong

During his governorship, Hong Kong became increasingly prosperous. At the same time, many tens of thousands of refugees were illegally crossing the border from China every year, driven in part by widespread famine in China during the years 1958-1961. Some were stopped and sent back, but almost all of the hundreds of thousands who reached Kowloon were allowed to stay. This influx placed an enormous burden on the colonial authorities, but the needs of the refugees were met by a programme of public housing construction and public health measures.

Robert Black had been dealing with the patriotic Hong Kong Chinese in a heavy-handed way. On 18 April 1958, a raid was conducted on the library of the Pui Kiu Middle School (PKMS). The officer-in-charge of the Hong Kong Island Section of the Inspectorate of Education visited the school with five assistants. Nineteen books were confiscated and four were used as evidence of the ‘mismanagement of the school’ in a warning letter addressed to the school supervisor on 13 May. On the basis of these and other accusations, such as hiring of unregistered teachers and discussion of political issues in school meetings, To Pak-fui (杜伯奎), the principal of PKMS, was deported on 6 August, to Lo Wu.[1]

Hong Kong experienced a prolonged drought of unanticipated severity during the last two years of his tenure, which led to a serious water shortage. Water rationing was imposed in May 1962 and continued through August 1964. From June 1963 until late May 1964 (when the arrival of Typhoon Viola ended the drought) the water supply was restricted to a single four-hour period every four days.

Black helped establish the Chinese University of Hong Kong by uniting several smaller institutions.[2] He served as Chancellor of both the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong during his tenure as Governor of Hong Kong.

He was knighted (KCMG) in 1955 and promoted to GCMG in 1962.

Post-governorship

Black returned to Britain in 1964.[3] He was active with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the Royal Commonwealth Society, and served as chairman of the Clerical Medical and General Life Assurance Society in the 1970s. He died on 29 October 1999, having been predeceased some years earlier (in 1986) by his wife Anne. He was survived by their two daughters, Barbara and Kathryn.[2]

Tributes

• Robert Black College, a graduate college of the University of Hong Kong
• Robert Black Health Centre in San Po Kong, Hong Kong
• Sir Robert Black College of Education, now merged into the Hong Kong Institute of Education
• (for his wife) The Anne Black YWCA, Kowloon
• (for his wife) Anne Black Health Centre, North Point

Notes

1. Hong Kong socialist experimentation in the colonial era: Patriotic schools, 1946-1976, by Lau Chui-Shan, Hong Kong Baptist University, [e-mail]
2. Sir Robert BlackTough Scot sorting out the end of Britain's empire
3. Hong Kong, Report for the Year 1963. Hong Kong Government Press. 1964.

Government offices
Preceded by Sir Alexander Grantham	Governor of Hong Kong 1958–1964	Succeeded by Sir David Trench
Preceded by Sir John Fearns Nicoll	Governor of Singapore 1955–1957	Succeeded by Sir William Allmond Codrington Goode
Preceded by Sir John Fearns Nicoll	Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong 1952–1954	Succeeded by Sir Edgeworth Beresford David