Our thanks to Jim Wilkie for providing this
information.
There were quite a number of Scots active in the
East, and I just wish I could remember all of them. One of them was the
original for the character of Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly, but his
name escapes me for the moment; he was an Aberdonian who made a career
in Japan. And then there is the partly less salubrious story of the
Jardine Mathieson company of Hong Kong. In a book entitled "Scottish
Firsts: innovation and Achievement" (published by Mainstream for the
then Scottish Development Agency) I found this information:
"As new trading opportunities opened up so were the Scots to be found.
It was the Scottish King James VI who was the first royal personage to
write to the Emperor of Japan. The ensuing trade agreement gave the
Japanese their first glimpse of the Stuart tartan, which was reproduced
in Japan during the period. Many of the early Indian "Nabobs" were
Scottish, and later it was the Scots Hugh Falconer of Forres and William
Jameson of Leith who were largely responsible for the development of tea
plantations in India. Many of the great trading houses of the Far East
such as Jardine Mathieson were founded and are still largely run by
Scots."
"Scottish shipbuilding expertise was exported to build the floating
docks of Java and Saigon... Much of the development of Japanese
shipbuilding over the past century has been in Scottish hands. Many of
Japan's shipbuilders and naval architects were trained on the Clyde, and
the first professor of naval architecture at Tokyo University was
naturally a Glasgow University graduate. Dundee, renowned worldwide for
its "jute, jam and journalism", exported its skills to develop the jute
industry of Calcutta. At one time Dundee-based companies operated 3,714
jute looms in India, and also provided an eighth of the capital
investment involved in the development of the industry."
-
Lord Maclehose of Beoch was Governor and
Commander-in-Chief of Hong Kong 1971-82
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Lord Hopetoun was first Governor-General of
Australia
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Thomas Sutherland was first Chairman of the Hong
Kong Dockyard Company
-
Sir James Carnhill (1851-1926) founded the first
medical college for Chinese students - one of whom became the first
President of the Chinese Republic
-
Sir John Macarthur (1767-1834) established the
Australian wool industry and planted the first vineyard there
-
Allan Octavian Hume founded the Indian Congress
Party
-
Moiuntstuart Elpninstone (1779-1857) founded the
Indian state education system
-
Thomas Macaulay founded the Indian Penal Code
-
William Kidston (1840- ) founded Queensland
University, Australia
-
William Paterson (1755-1800) introduced the peach
to Australia
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Sir William Cresswell (1852-1933) founded the
Australian navy
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George Boyle (1746-81) the first British visitor
to Tibet, concluded a commercial treaty with the Panchen Lama
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Rev. Thomas Burns and Capt. William Cargill in
the 1840s established Otago and Dunedin in New Zealand
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Lachlan Macquarie (1761-1824) Governor of New
South Wales and transformed it from a penal colony
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Catherine Spence (1825-1910) was Australia's
first woman novelist
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James Chisolm ran the first saloon in Sydney,
called the Thistle Tavern
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Samuel Laing was India's first Finance Minister
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Dame Nellie Melba, the Australian operatic
singer, was of Scots ancestry
