Horace Kadoorie

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Horace Kadoorie
Born28 September 1902
Died22 April 1995(1995-04-22) (aged 92)
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Industrialist, hotelier, and philanthropist

Sir Horace Kadoorie, CBE (28 September 1902 – 22 April 1995) was an industrialist, hotelier, and philanthropist.[1] He was a member of the Kadoorie family.

Early life and education[edit]

In 1913–14, he spent a year at Clifton College[2] and was a member of Polacks House, a boarding house solely for Jewish boys at Clifton.

Personal life[edit]

His father was Sir Elly Kadoorie, and his uncle, Sir Ellis Kadoorie. His family were originally Iraqi Jews from Baghdad who later migrated to Bombay, British India, in the mid-18th century. Kadoorie and his brother, Sir Lawrence Kadoorie, worked for Victor Sassoon during the 1920s and 1930s, and managed his Shanghai hotel. They also worked for their father, the industrialist Sir Elly Kadoorie.

He and his brother formed an agricultural aid organisation that in the 1960s helped hundreds of thousands of peasants in rural areas of Hong Kong to become independent farmers. Kadoorie and his brother, Lawrence, both received the Magsaysay Award for public service in 1962.

They were also appointed Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur by the French government. The Nepal Government awarded him one of its highest honours, 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 22 April 1995.

He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Happy Valley, Hong Kong.

Philanthropy[edit]

Among Sir Horace's philanthropies was a school that became a haven for Jewish refugee children in the Shanghai ghetto.[3][4][5]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Horace Kadoorie, Philanthropist, 92". New York Times. 26 April 1995. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  2. ^ "Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p327: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948
  3. ^ "Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Search Results". collections.ushmm.org. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  4. ^ Falbaum, Berl (2005). Shanghai Remembered: Stories of Jews who Escaped to Shanghai from Nazi Europe. Momentum Books. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-879094-73-4.
  5. ^ Cox, Billy. "Sarasota Holocaust survivor Sigmund Tobias, who fled to China during WWII, featured on PBS". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved 8 January 2021.