Governor of Hong Kong
Mark Aitchison Young took which position from May 1946 to May 1947?
Mark Aitchison Young Sir Mark Aitchison Young ( 楊慕琦 , 30 June 1886 – 12 May 1974 ) was a British administrator who became the Governor of Hong Kong during the years immediately before and after the Japanese occupation of the territory . Early life , service in war . Young was the third son of colonial administrator William Mackworth Young and his second wife , Frances Mary , daughter of Sir Robert Eyles Egerton , KCSI , JP , Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab from 1877 to 1882 , Sir Robert Egerton was nephew of the 8th and 9th Grey Egerton baronets . Mark Youngs paternal grandfather was Sir George Young , 2nd Baronet . Young was educated at Eton College and Kings College , Cambridge . He entered the Ceylon Civil Service in 1909 and served in the British Army with the Rifle Brigade ( Prince Consorts Own ) during World War I from 1915 . Colonial administration . Young served as principal assistant colonial secretary of Ceylon from 1923 to 1928 , then as colonial secretary of Sierra Leone from 1928 to 1930 . From 1930 to 1933 , he served as chief secretary to the Government of the British Mandate of Palestine . From 5 August 1933 to March 1938 , he served as governor and commander-in-chief of Barbados . From November 1937 to February 1938 , he served in the Government of Trinidad and Tobago . Then from 1938 to 1941 , he served as governor and commander-in-chief of the Tanganyika Territory British Mandate . Hong Kong governor , prisoner of war . On 10 September 1941 he was appointed Governor of Hong Kong . Japanese forces already occupied the Chinese mainland adjoining Hong Kong as part of their ongoing war with China , and early in Youngs term Hong Kong came under the threat of Japanese invasion . At 08:00 , 8 December 1941 , several hours after Pearl Harbor was attacked , Hong Kong came under fire by Imperial Japanese Forces . The battle lasted for 17 days , and ended when Young surrendered the colony to the Japanese General Takashi Sakai on 25 December , known as the Black Christmas by Hong Kong people , who were then subject to Japanese rule for the next 3 years and 8 months . Young rebuffed several attempts by General Maltby and others in the military to ask for terms and discuss surrender as early as the 18th . This was in part based on clear instruction by Churchill directly to Young , advising him that Every Part of ( Hong Kong ) Island must be fought over and the enemy resisted with the utmost stubbornness . Every day that you are able to maintain your resistance you help the Allied cause all over the world . Young was a prisoner of war in Japanese hands from December 1941 to August 1945 . He was initially held in the Peninsula Hotel and subsequently incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp in Stanley , on the southern shores of Hong Kong Island . Shortly thereafter , he was later transferred , with other high-ranking Allied captives , including General Maltby , to a series of POW camps in Shanghai , Taiwan , and Japan , then to a camp near the Chinese-Mongolian border , and finally to a location near Mukden ( modern Shenyang ) Manchuria , until his liberation at wars end . Despite being the colonys highest-ranking official , Young was mistreated by his captors . Japan was defeated and surrendered in September 1945 and the British regained control of the colony . Post-Japanese occupation governorship . Young resumed his duties as Governor of Hong Kong on 1 May 1946 , after having spent some time recuperating in England . After returning , he proposed political reforms that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to directly choose a 30-member representative Legislative Council . He envisaged that the new Council would handle everyday affairs and that its decisions would be immune to the Governors veto . Young , echoing the plan of Sir Geoffry Northcote , called for the promotion of local Chinese civil servants to the senior posts . These initiatives were eventually abandoned under the term of Governor Sir Alexander Grantham , an ardent conservative . Young retired from the governorship in 1947 . Personal life . Young and his wife , Josephine Mary , had two sons and two daughters . Young , Sir William Robinson and Christopher Patten are the only governors not to have been honoured in Hong Kong after completing their post . This is likely as most of Youngs time in Hong Kong was spent as prisoner of war , with only a brief period from 1946 to 1947 as governor . His brothers Gerard Mackworth Young ( also director of the British School at Athens ) and Sir Hubert Winthrop Young , KCMG , were also colonial administrators . Honours . - C.M.G. , 1931 - K.C.M.G. , 1934 - G.C.M.G. , 1946 References . - Battle For Hong Kong December 1941 by Philip Cracknell JULY 2019 . Publisher AMBERLEY . External links . - Hong Kong Photo 1946–1947 by Hedda Morrison