Sir Horace Kadoorie, CBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

  (28 September 1902 - 22 April 1995) was a famous industrialist, hotelier, and philanthropist

Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

. His father was Sir Elly Kadoorie

Elly Kadoorie

Sir Elly Kadoorie , philanthropist and member of the wealthy Baghdadian Family that had large business interests in the Far East. His brother was Sir Ellis Kadoorie, and his sons are sir Lawrence Kadoorie and sir Horace Kadoorie...

, and his uncle, Sir Ellis Kadoorie

Ellis Kadoorie

Sir Ellis Kadoorie , philanthropist and member of the wealthy Baghdadian family that had large business interests in the Far East. His brother was Sir Elly Kadoorie, and his nephew was Lawrence Kadoorie...

. His family were originally Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

i Jews from Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

 who later migrated to Bombay (Mumbai), India in the mid-18th century. In 1913-14, he spent a year at Clifton College

Clifton College

Clifton College is a co-educational independent school in Clifton, Bristol, England, founded in 1862. In its early years it was notable for emphasising science in the curriculum, and for being less concerned with social elitism, e.g. by admitting day-boys on equal terms and providing a dedicated...

 and was a member of Polacks House; a boarding house solely for Jewish boys at Clifton.

Kadoorie and his brother Sir Lawrence Kadoorie

Lawrence Kadoorie, Baron Kadoorie

Sir Lawrence Kadoorie, Baron Kadoorie, CBE was a famous industrialist, hotelier, and philanthropist. His father was Sir Elly Kadoorie, and his uncle, Sir Ellis Kadoorie. His family were originally Mizrahi Jews from Baghdad who later migrated to Bombay , India in the mid-eighteenth century...

 worked for Victor Sassoon

Victor Sassoon

Sir Ellice "Victor" Sassoon, 3rd Baronet, GBE was a businessman and hotelier from the Sassoon banking family. He succeeded to the Baronetcy on the death of his father Edward Elias Sassoon in 1924...

 during the 1920s and 1930s, and managed his famous Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 hotel. They also worked for there for their father, the famous industrialist Sir Elly Kadoorie.

Among Sir Horace's philanthropies was a school that became a haven for Jewish refugee children in Shanghai.

He and his brother also formed an agricultural aid organization that in the 1960s helped hundreds of thousands of peasants in rural areas near Hong Kong to become independent farmers.

Kadoorie and his brother, Lawrence, both received the Magsaysay Award for public service in 1962. They were also conferred Chev.Leg.Hon. by the French government

Government of France

The government of the French Republic is a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic"...

. The Nepal Government awarded him one of its highest honors, the Gorkha Dakshin Bahu (First Class) Award, for his work in helping Gurkha soldiers readjust to rural life after leaving the British military.

Sir Horace Kadoorie died in Hong Kong on the 22 April 1995. He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Happy Valley, Hong Kong

Happy Valley, Hong Kong

Happy Valley is a mostly residential suburb of Hong Kong, located in the northern part of Hong Kong Island. Administratively, it is part of Wan Chai District....

.

See also

• Kadoorie family