12 Facts About Edward Stubbs

Reginald Edward Stubbs was born on 13 October 1876, the son of William Stubbs, a historian and bishop of Chester and Oxford, consecutively.

Edward Stubbs was educated at Radley and Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Edward Stubbs entered Colonial Office in 1900 as a second-class clerk, eventually serving as acting first class clerk from 1907 to 1910, when he became a permanent 1st class clerk.

In that same year, Stubbs was sent on a special mission to Malay Peninsula and Hong Kong.

Edward Stubbs was a member of West African Lands Committee in 1912, and became a colonial secretary of Ceylon in from 1913 to 1919.

Edward Stubbs was appointed Hong Kong Governor in 1919, a position he served until 1925.

Edward Stubbs engaged in cordial talks with Sun Yat-sen and his supporters in Hong Kong prior to Sun's triumphal return to Canton in February 1923.

At first, Edward Stubbs tried to suppress the strikers with legal and forceful means.

Edward Stubbs banned the Chinese Seamen's Union, the organizer of the strike and banned Dr Sun and the Soviet military and political advisers in Canton from entering the colony due to Sun's anti-colonial remarks.

Edward Stubbs took a conservative stance, in line with his Chinese elite advisors, on the issue of mui-tsai, a form of child slavery then prevalent in the colony.

Edward Stubbs would hold this position until 1932, when he was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Cyprus.

In 1933 Edward Stubbs was appointed to his last position in the Colonial Service: Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Ceylon.