Gao Heer
Gao He’er (Daniel Richard Francis Caldwell; 19 September 1816 – 2 October 1875), also known as Gao Sanguo and Gao Luyun, was an official in British Hong Kong who served from 1856 to 1862 as Registrar General and Superintendent of Chinese Affairs, before his career ended amid scandal.
Early Life
Gao He’er was born on 13 September 1816 on Saint Helena, then under the British East India Company. His father, Danny, served in a local militia, and his mother was Mary. As a child he accompanied his father to Penang and Singapore. By 1834 he was commanding his own merchant vessel. He then worked as a bookkeeper at an opium trading firm in Guangzhou. According to historian Stuart Heaver, Gao was notorious for affairs with multiple Chinese women, through which he acquired his command of Chinese dialects.[1] Fluent in Cantonese, Malay, Hindustani, and Portuguese, he served as an interpreter for the British during the First Opium War.[2]
Rise to Power
In 1842 Gao settled in Hong Kong shortly after the colony’s founding, acting as intermediary between the colonial government and local Chinese. He served first as court interpreter, then in 1846 was appointed Assistant Superintendent of Police. Declared bankrupt in 1847, he resigned and fled to Macau, but was later rehired by the Hong Kong authorities. Using his network of informants, he led efforts against piracy, assisting the Royal Navy in defeating pirate fleets. On 4 August 1855 he joined the final anti‑piracy operation in Huhlan Bay, in which HMS Rattler and the American vessel Powhattan destroyed ten pirate junks and killed over 800 pirates.[3]
Dissatisfied with his pay, Gao resigned to trade along China’s southern coast aboard his schooner Young Eagle, protected by his own armed escorts. During the Second Opium War, Governor Robinson praised him as the only official who had maintained good relations with local Chinese. In 1856 he was appointed Registrar General and Superintendent of Chinese Affairs, empowered by emergency ordinances in 1857–58 to regulate Chinese commerce and social life, including licensing of brothels.[4] He also helped foil an assassination plot against Acting Governor William Caine in April 1857.[5]
Scandal Exposed
In early 1857, a poisoning case at Caldwell’s bakery heightened Chinese–European mistrust. Pirate Ira Poe sued Chinese pirate Huang Mozhou, accusing Gao of colluding with Huang to supply pirate intelligence. Huang was arrested in July for robbery; Gao defended him vigorously. On 10 May 1858 the Colonial Treasurer Frederick Forth accused Gao of owning one or more brothels, and Attorney General Thomas Anstey labeled him “brothel owner and pirate accomplice,” insultingly calling his Chinese wife a prostitute. Robinson noted the scandal was virtually unprecedented among British officials.[6]
An inquiry led by Freemason Development Secretary Ansley and other Gao allies largely whitewashed him, but a second inquiry under new Governor MacDonnell found Gao had obstructed justice, colluded with pirates, and was unfit for office. He was dismissed and forbidden further public service.[7]
Later Years and Death
After dismissal, Gao worked as a private detective and advisor, later rehired by Governor MacDonnell to advise on gambling licences and lead a secret police unit. In 1845 he had married a Chinese woman surnamed Chen, Mary Chan Ayow, making them one of the first mixed British‑Chinese couples in Hong Kong. They had twelve children and adopted over twenty orphaned Chinese children. Gao died on 2 October 1875 in Hong Kong at age 59 and was buried in Happy Valley Cemetery, where a tall Freemason monument still stands.[8]
His widow sold their property at the corner of Hollywood Road and Aberdeen Street to the London Missionary Society at a reduced price. The site became Alice Memorial Hospital (affiliated with the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Medicine) and its chapel, where Sun Yat‑sen once worshipped.[9]
References
- ↑ Stuart Heaver, "Flagrant harbour: the sordid affair that cemented Hong Kong's reputation for vice and corruption," South China Morning Post, 22 February 2014.
- ↑ Carl T. Smith, Chinese Christians: Elites, Middlemen, and the Church in Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong Press, 2005.
- ↑ Iain Ward, Sui Geng: The Hong Kong Marine Police 1841–1950, University of Hong Kong Press, 1991, p. 15.
- ↑ Stuart Heaver, ibid.
- ↑ Robert Bickers and Christian Henriot, New Frontiers: Imperialism's New Communities in East Asia, 1842–1953, Manchester University Press, 2000, pp. 18–19.
- ↑ Stuart Heaver, ibid.
- ↑ 徐承恩, 城邦舊事: 十二本書看香港本土史 (修訂版), Red Publish, 2016.
- ↑ Stuart Heaver, ibid.
- ↑ 丁新豹, 跑馬地香港墳場初探, Hong Kong Contemporary Culture Centre, 2008.
External Links
- "The Caldwell Affair" – Sparkpost (archived)
- "Gao He’er Scandal" – ts88lai blog