Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

A REAL Hong Kong mystery for you to solve!

Introducing Sir Paul Catchick Chater, whose missing paintings are at the heart of the mystery in my new book The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah ! Sir Paul was a VERY important man in Hong Kong, but apart from Chater Road in Central and Catchick Street in Kennedy Town, most Hong Kongers today know nothing about him! Born in Calcutta to Armenian parents, he was orphaned at the age of just 7, and came to Hong Kong to be near his sister when he was 18. But he was clever, and very good at business, and by the time he died he was so well-loved and important to Hong Kong that he was called the “father of Hong Kong”! Here’s a small list of just some of the things he did:

• he founded Dairy Farm (which owns Wellcome, Mannings and Marketplace) with a Scottish partner
• he founded Hong Kong Electric, one of the first electric companies in the world!
• at night, he could be seen in a sampan, measuring the depth of the coastline, which resulted in Hong Kong’s very first land reclamation, where Statue Square, the old Legco Building, Princes Building and the Mandarin Hotel stand today! As well as Chater Road of course…
• he built the fabulous Marble Hall as his family home, on Conduit Road. Here’s a picture:

So why is he so important to my new book?

Well, he also collected VERY valuable paintings and etchings of China’s early contact with Europeans, the most valuable of which went missing during World War II, and have have never been found since ! Today they would be worth at least 30 million Hong Kong dollars or 3 million pounds sterling! They must be somewhere in Hong Kong – but where?

You’ll have to read my new book to find out how they disappeared and where they might be now! Maybe you’ll be the one to find them!

And if you want to find out more about the fabulous Sir Paul Chater, just click here!