History

I first became aware of the Friends of LSE in 1983, shortly after I arrived in Hong Kong to be Attorney-General. Ken Topley (BSc Econ. 1949 who sadly passed away in March 2007), then Secretary for Education and Manpower, was retiring and asked me to take over as ‘Convener’. I recollect about thirty of us gathering to chat over drinks somewhere, mostly expatriates and getting on in age. They had earlier raised £9,000 in 1975 for the LSE Library development.

When the negotiations over the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 were completed, I had time to update graduate records with LSE’s help. I recollect we then had records for some 750 graduates, half as many as today. It was clear to me that the Friends had to appeal to its increasing number of younger local graduates if the group were to thrive and develop. One of our early successful meetings was a forum on 7 July 1987 for Friends to debate the Government’s green paper on the future of representative government in Hong Kong as part of a wider public consultation. Professor Peter Harris (of HKU), Emily Lau (then with the Far Eastern Economic Review), and the late Stephen Cheong (of LegCo) kicked off a lively discussion.

These were the days of waning colonial power when Hong Kong began to wake up to the need to develop a political consciousness and to bring on its own political leaders. By a wholly undemocratic process, I appointed George Wong as the first Chinese Chair of the Friends. In return he invited me to assume the honorary role of ‘Chief Friend’.

I remember we held a dinner (by now the menu was always Chinese) to honour two LSE members of Leg Co, Tam Yiu Chung elected for the labour constituency (he is still in LegCo), and Rosanna Wong an appointed member who ran (as she still does) the Hong Kong Federation of Youth. It was over the coffee and brandies at that dinner that George Wong and others urged a seemingly coy Emily Lau to run for direct election to LegCo in a constituency where George Wong was a local activist. In 1991, she duly became the first woman elected to Leg Co. and the rest is history.

At the same time, more ambitious social activities were pursued. There was a visit to the outward bound school, and a junk trip or two. After Andrew Garrett had steered Friends in that direction, the Chair became held by Karen Chan, a solicitor who later emigrated to Canada. With formidable assistance from Virginia Devereux and William Lo, not just one, but two LSE Balls were held in successive years, 1987 and 1988. More than a hundred dressed up to dine and dance together and raffle prizes. William Lo still has the 1988 programme containing goodwill messages from Princess Anne and I. G. Patel. The second ball was primarily to raise funds for naming a ‘Hong Kong’ flat at the students’ accommodation at Butlers Wharf which, together with other donations, eventually realised £50,000 in 1989.

It was during those years that the Friends came to benefit hugely from the generosity and support of Raymond Law. With George Chu’s managerial skills, he sponsored and organised a one day LSE seminar on 21 September 1989 at which trade and economic issues facing Hong Kong in the run up to 1997 were addressed and debated. The Director LSE, Ralf (now Lord) Dahrendorf flew out to open the conference and preside over the day’s events. It was attended by some 150 businessmen and Friends. I persuaded my wife (Baroness Lydia Dunn), then Senior Member of Executive Council, to give the lunchtime address.

Raymond Law’s generosity was also largely responsible for a scholarship fund that the Friends established in 1990 to select and support two students to attend LSE for undergraduate studies. One of them has recently returned the compliment, after a successful business career, by making a substantial donation to LSE.

Throughout the following years, various chairs and committee members went in and out of office (I know not what records are preserved) with greater or lesser activity to show for it. But there was no period when the Friends did not occasionally come together, if only to meet and greet or to lunch or dine visiting LSE Directors or senior academics passing through. I recall a successful dinner in January 1996 for John Ashworth, the Director who led LSE’s bid to take over County Hall by Westminster Bridge, a very thought provoking lunch with Professor Charles Goodhart, and a joint dinner held with the Friends of Harvard at which Jerry Cohen (former Dean of the Harvard Law School) spoke about the development of the Mainland’s legal system.

So there was maintained continuously a clear focus and fund of goodwill for LSE by a changing group of active Friends. This had tangible results. There was a particularly generous response to the LSE’s Centenary appeal in 1994-5. A campaign committee was formed and with generous contributions from Charles Lee and Raymond Law, a very substantial sum was donated for the splendid ‘Hong Kong lecture theatre’ in the newly acquired St. Clement’s Building in the Aldwych.

I left Hong Kong in 1996 and I have since viewed events from London, keeping in touch and offering advice as and when asked for it. As a Governor of LSE since 2000, I can see how alumni activities throughout the world are a continuing source of strength and influence in maintaining LSE’s international profile. The School participates in many joint projects with Asian universities in China and in India. Last year 650 students from Mainland China studied in Houghton Street.

Much thought and effort has recently been applied to the task of bonding all alumni and Friends overseas more closely to the school and its activities. LSE staged its 2nd Asia Forum in Hong Kong in September 2005 to display its academic cutting edge. There have been others in Thailand, and in Delhi, and one is planned for 2008 in Singapore. In recent years, Charles Lee, Rosanna Wong and Robert Ribeiro have each been awarded honorary fellowships of LSE in recognition of their personal achievements and support for the School.

The Friends of Hong Kong, one of the largest overseas alumni groups, have clearly an important to play part in fostering support for one of the world’s most influential graduate academies, and an institution of which we can all be proud.

Michael Thomas CMG, QC, SC
LSE Governor

Past Chairman

• Mr. William M T Lo ( Immediate Past Chairman )
  
• Ms. Wendy W M Tsang
• Mr. Kevin Chan
• Mr. Benny Chan
• Mr. George Chu
• Ms. Karen Chan
• Mr. Andrew Garett
• Mr. George Wong
• Mr. Michael David Thomas
• Mr. Ken Topley ( Founder of the Group )