Horace Kadoorie

Grave of Horace Kadoorie

Sir Horace Kadoorie, CBE (28 September 1902 - 22 April 1995) was a famous industrialist, hotelier, and philanthropist. His father was Sir Elly Kadoorie, and his uncle, Sir Ellis Kadoorie. His family were originally Iraqi Jews from Baghdad who later migrated to Bombay (Mumbai), India in the mid-18th century. In 1913-14, he spent a year at Clifton College and was a member of Polacks House; a boarding house solely for Jewish boys at Clifton.

Kadoorie and his brother Sir Lawrence Kadoorie worked for Victor Sassoon during the 1920s and 1930s, and managed his famous Shanghai hotel. They also worked for there for their father, the famous industrialist Sir Elly Kadoorie.

Among Sir Horace's philanthropies was a school that became a haven for Jewish refugee children in Shanghai.

He and his brother also formed an agricultural aid organization that in the 1960s helped hundreds of thousands of peasants in rural areas near Hong Kong to become independent farmers.

Kadoorie and his brother, Lawrence, both received the Magsaysay Award for public service in 1962. They were also conferred Chev.Leg.Hon. by the French government. The Nepal Government awarded him one of its highest honors, the Gorkha Dakshin Bahu (First Class) Award, for his work in helping Gurkha soldiers readjust to rural life after leaving the British military.

Sir Horace Kadoorie died in Hong Kong on the 22 April 1995. He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Happy Valley, Hong Kong.

See also

• Kadoorie family