page_title: John Rawling Todd
section_title: Hong Kong
hierarchical_section_title: John Rawling Todd / Career / Hong Kong
caption_attribution_description: Tsuen Wan Skyline 荃灣
context_page_description: John Rawling Todd CVO OBE JP was a British colonial civil servant. He held progressively senior roles in the administration of British Hong Kong, and served as Secretary for Housing from 1986 to 1988. Earlier in his career he was involved in the illegal forced deporation of the Chagossians.
context_section_description: He was sent to Hong Kong as the District Officer for Tsuen Wan in 1976. Todd was one of the officials, alongside David Akers-Jones and David Ford, who worked on the Green Paper on the introduction of District Board elections, published in April 1980 and with its recommendations coming into effect in 1982. 
  He subsequently became Deputy Secretary of Lands and then Director of Lands from April 1982 to April 1986. He became Senior British Representative of the Sino-British Land Commission from 1984 to 1988 after the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed. This was a busy period in his career, as the land issue (concerning leasing and property rights) was among the most contentious topics discussed in the negotiations that led to the Joint Declaration. Todd served in the Land Commission alongside John Chan and Registrar-General Noel Gleeson. 
  In 1986, he was appointed Secretary for Housing. In 1991, he became Chairman of the Special Committee on Compensation & Betterment. As Chairman, Todd published a report in March 1992 that did not recommend providing compensation to landowner's whose development rights were affected by rezoning. For his public services, he was appointed CVO in 1972 and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1985.
caption: Tsuen Wan, where Todd worked from 1976
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