Robert Hotung

By 1869, Charles Bosman was also the Dutch Consul, running a own marine insurance business whose important clients included the British owned trading conglomerate Jardine, Matheson & Co. He later left for England, where he became naturalised in 1888. In Cantonese, Bosman was pronounced Bo-se-man, transliterated into Cantonese became Ho Sze Man. When Robert Bosman travelled, he carried a certificate from the Governor of Hong Kong stating that his father was Dutch.

He was educated at Queen's College, previously known as the Central School. Read Less

Robert's son Robert Ho Hung-ngai (born 1932), a former journalist and publisher in Hong Kong, is the founder of the Tung Lin Kok-yuen Canada Society.

Third son George Ho Cho-chi is a founder of Commercial Radio Hong Kong.

A fourth son, Henry, died of tuberculosis when he was 4.

Victoria Hotung (Lady Lo) was his eldest daughter. She married Sir Man-kam Lo, a prominent Eurasian lawyer and legislator who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II after World War II. Their son, Lo Tak-shing, was a former lawyer and legislator in Hong Kong who once ran against Tung Chee Hwa for Chief Executive.

Three other daughters – Irene Cheng, Jean Gittins and Florence Yeo – wrote memoirs chronicling their war-time experiences in colonial Hong Kong. Jean Gittins migrated to Melbourne Australia after the World War where she worked in the Pathology Department of Melbourne University. She also wrote six books: "I Was at Stanley", " Eastern Windows – Western Skies", "The Diggers from China", "Stanley: Behind Barbed Wire", "A Stranger No More" and "Prizes, Books and Papers (1879/1969)". Irene Cheng, educator, was one of the first female undergraduate students enrolled to study English at the University of Hong Kong in 1921. She went on to study for a Diploma in Education at King's College in London in 1925. In 1936, she received her PhD from the University of London. Read Less