Emanuel Raphael Belilios

Emanuel Raphael Belilios
CMG, JP
Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
In office
8 August 1881 – 5 September 1882
Appointed bySir John Pope Hennessy
Preceded byJohn MacNeile Price
Succeeded byJohn MacNeile Price
In office
25 February 1892 – 5 April 1900
Appointed bySir William Robinson
Sir Wilsone Black
Preceded byPhineas Ryrie
Succeeded byR. M. Gray
Chairman of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation
In office
1876–1877
Preceded byAndolph von André
Succeeded byHans Christian Heinrich Hoppius
Personal details
Born(1837-11-14)14 November 1837
Calcutta, British India
Died11 November 1905(1905-11-11) (aged 67)
London, United Kingdom
Resting placeGolders Green Jewish Cemetery

Emanuel Raphael Belilios, CMG, JP (14 November 1837 – 11 November 1905) was a banker, opium dealer, philanthropist and businessman, born in Calcutta, British India and active in Hong Kong. His father, Raphael Emanuel Belilios, was a member of a Jewish Venetian family. Belilios married Simha Ezra in 1855, and in 1862 he settled in Hong Kong and engaged in trade. His success saw him described in the British press at the time as "one of the merchant princes of the colony."[1]

In the 1870s, Belilios was chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited.[2]

He tried to establish relations with the then British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli by proposing a marble and bronze statue of Disraeli, which was rejected by the prime minister.[3] Belilios erected the Beaconsfield Arcade, a reference to Disraeli title Lord Beaconsfield, in Hong Kong instead.[4] However until his death Bellios would annually send a wreath to decorate the statue of Benjamin Disraeli on Parliament Square.[5]

He became Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Chairman from 1876 to 1882, appointed to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong in 1881 and as the Council's Senior Unofficial Member from 1892 to 1900.

Belilios gained his reputation as a philanthropist. In the years 1887 and 1888, Belilios gave two annual scholarships valued at $60, to the students of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese and studying at the Alice Memorial Hospital.[6] Later in 1888, Belilios was a Director of the Hong Kong, Canton & Macao Steamboat Company[7] In August 1889, Belilios donated $25,000 to set up a girls' government school. The Belilios Public School was renamed from Central School for Girls in honour of Belilios.[8]

His first son David Belilios died in the plague of 1898.

Regarding the Chinese population Belilios observed favourably that: “The native Chinese make no difference between a Jew and Christian. Both are foreigners in their eyes, but, if anything they are better affected towards the Jew who they regard as Asiatic like themselves.”[9]

Belilios died in London on 11 November 1905 and was buried at Golders Green Jewish Cemetery.[10] On his death he bequeathed a £250,000 to found a free college for Jewish children in Calcutta.[11]

  1. ^ Navy and Army Illustrated. 1904.
  2. ^ "History 1871–1880" Archived 12 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited
  3. ^ McCabe, Ina Baghdiantz; Harlaftis, Gelina; Minoglou, Ioanna Pepelasis (2005). Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks: Four Centuries of History. Berg. p. 260.
  4. ^ "Beaconsfield Arcade [1880–1933] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong". gwulo.com. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  5. ^ The Navy and Army Illustrated. 1904.
  6. ^ "Advertisements". The Straits Times. Singapore. 29 September 1887. p. 2.
  7. ^ The Directory & Chronicle for China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Daily Press Office. 1888. pp. 293–294.
  8. ^ Endacott, G. B. (1973) [1958]. A history of Hong Kong. London: Oxford University Press. p. 238. ISBN 9780196382647.
  9. ^ Kupfer, Peter (2008). Youtai – Presence and Perception of Jews and Judaism in China. Peter Lang. ISBN 9783631575338.
  10. ^ Meller, Hugh; Parsons, Brian (2008). London Cemeteries: an illustrated guide and gazetteer. The History Press. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-7509-4622-3.
  11. ^ Indian Education. Vol. 5. 1906.