A Stormy Petrel: The Life and Times of John Pope Hennessy

Many years ago, I read Verandah, John Pope Hennessy’s grandson’s account of his forefather’s life, and was struck by the singularity of the subject and the merits of the author. To the extent that I would pass on my copy to others in the expectation they would be equally impressed — just as one has to be by biographies of, for example, Ramanujan or Victor Sorge, accounts of lives where fact outdoes fiction. But it was some years later when looking into the development of meteorology in Hong Kong that I came more directly in contact with my subject — the governor — and realized the multidimensional aspects of his career. Somewhat brazenly, I undertook to write my own take on the John Pope Hennessy story, deliberately not revisiting Verandah until near the end, and this book is the result. It is not a substitute for nor a replacement of James Pope-Hennessy’s masterpiece, even less a “post-colonial” appraisal of the events of the time. It cannot but linger on the many controversial episodes in his career, but it also tries to integrate some neglected aspects of Pope Hennessy’s story, such as the deep interest he took in the peoples he governed, and the Irish dimension. At the same time, this work is very much in debt to his grandson’s efforts.

My rejection of a suggested alternative title for the book, A Mick on the Make, indicates the direction in which my sympathies lie — for a potted version of what that book might have been, the reader is directed to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Likewise, Not an Inconsiderable Man as a title, in the vein of Gladstone’s diary entry on hearing of Pope Hennessy’s death, might convey too much approval of the subject.