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The Origins of Deacons in Hong Kong

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I see that the origins of the history of Deacons has been recorded on their website:

"The firm takes its name from a young English solicitor, Victor Deacon, who arrived in the burgeoning British colony of Hong Kong in 1880 to join the legal practice established by William Bridges in 1851.

Within two years, the irrepressible Victor Deacon was made a partner and within 20 years, under his own name, he had firmly established Deacons as one of the colony's leading law firms, a position it has retained to this day"http://www.deacons.com.hk/

William Henry Brereton QC

In 1861, William Henry Brereton QC (born Dublin 1824) joined the law firm of  Henry Charles Caldwell (Notary Public) in Hong Kong. W H Brereton became partner & a Notary Public and the firm was known as 'Caldwell and Brereton'.

In 1871, after Charles Henry Caldwell left Hong Kong the firm was known as 'Brereton and Wootton'.

 In 1880, the firm was joined by Victor Hobart Deacon and became known as 'Brereton, Wootton and Deacon'- There are several references to this firm in the Jardine Matheson Archive which is held at Cambridge University (see link - http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0012%2FMS%20JM%2FF15%2F28 ). 
 
Today the firm is called 'Deacons'.
 
W H Brereton was appointed Queen's standing Counsel in London for the Chinese government on 30 March 1886. He was called to the Bar at Middle Temple in Kensington on 17 June 1886.
 
William Henry Brereton QC died of Bright's Disease at his home on Mount Gough, The Peak, in Hong Kong on 24 Oct 1887 and is buried there in Happy Valley cemetery.
His age is given as 59 in the death announcement (China Mail 25 Oct 1887).
 
As a lawyer he was known as "a shrewd adviser and a ready speaker".(see obit. The China Mail 24 Oct 1887).
 
Accounts of his law cases appear in the Hong Kong newspapers of the time.

His official papers are held in the Jardine Matheson archive at Cambridge University.

 

According to the member profile of Deacons on the link below for the Hong Kong Chamber of Comerce-

"The firm's namesake, Victor Deacon, arrived in Hong Kong aboard the Peninsula and Oriental steamship "Ravenna" on July 7, 1880.

The 33-year-old solicitor joined the partnership of Messrs Brereton and Wotton, a direct continuation of Bridges' original practice. While it had been just 19 years since Bridges' departure, much had changed and the practice was now one of four firms of solicitors that were flourishing in Hong Kong.

In just two years, he had quickly become respected as one of Hong Kong's leading conveyancers, and in 1882, Mr Deacon was admitted as a partner, thus adding his own name to the firm's."

http://www.chamber.org.hk/en/membership/profile_detail.aspx?profile_id=21

 
 
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