President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong

Politics and government of Hong Kong
Basic Law Chief Executive: Donald Tsang Government   Chief Secretary: Stephen Lam   Financial Secretary: John Tsang   Secretary for Justice: Wong Yan-lung   Executive Council     Convenor: Ronald Arculli   Bureaus, depts, etc.   Political Appointments   Accountability System Legislative Council   President: Jasper Tsang   Geographical constituency   Functional constituency   Elections   Political parties    Pan-democracy camp    Pro-Beijing camp Judiciary   Court of Final Appeal     Chief Justice: Geoffrey Ma   High Court Districts   District Councils Human rights Foreign relations Universal suffrage
Other Hong Kong topics
Culture - Economy Education - Geography - History Hong Kong Portal

The President of the Legislative Council is the speaker of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. In the absence of the President, the chairman of the House Committee serves as deputy to the President.

From the establishment of the council in 1843 to 1993, the President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong was the Governor. In 1991, a Deputy President was appointed by the governor from among the members to chair the sittings. The governor remained president and member, but systematically absented himself from most of the sittings. In February 1993, the governor ceased to be member and president of the council. The presidency was handed over to a member elected from among the unofficial members.

List of presidents

Colonial period

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office
1	Sir Henry Pottinger	1843	1844
2	Sir John Francis Davis	1844	1848
3	Sir George Bonham	1848	1854
4	Sir John Bowring	1854	1859
5	Sir Hercules Robinson	1859	1865
6	Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell	1866	1872
7	Sir Arthur Kennedy	1872	1877
8	Sir John Pope Hennessy	1877	1882
9	Sir George Ferguson Bowen	1883	1885
10	Sir George William Des Vœux	1887	1891
11	Sir William Robinson	1890	1898
12	Sir Henry Arthur Blake	1898	1903
13	Sir Matthew Nathan	1904	1904
14	Lord Frederick Lugard	1907	1912
15	Sir Francis Henry May	1912	1919
16	Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs	1919	1925
17	Sir Cecil Clementi	1925	1930
18	Sir William Peel	1930	1935
19	Sir Andrew Caldecott	1935	1937
20	Sir Geoffry Northcote	1937	1941
21	Sir Mark Aitchison Young	1941	1941

During Japanese occupation

From 1941 to 1946, the office was suspended due to Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office
Head of Japanese Occupation Forces in Hong Kong
22	Lieutenant-General Takashi Sakai and Lieutenant-General Masaichi Niimi	1941	February 20, 1942
Imperial Japanese Administrator for Hong Kong
23	General Isogai Rensuke	February 20, 1942	December 24, 1944
24	General Hisaichi Tanaka	December 24, 1944	1944

Colonial period (continued)

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office	Notes
-	Colonial Secretary Franklin Charles Gimson	1944	1944	Acting
25	Rear Admiral Sir Cecil Halliday Jepson Harcourt –	1944	1946	Head of British Military Government
26	Sir Mark Aitchison Young	1946	1947	Restoration
27	Sir Alexander Grantham	1947	1957
28	Sir Robert Brown Black	1958	1964
29	Sir David Clive Crosbie Trench	1964	1971
30	Lord MacLehose of Beoch	1971	1982
31	Sir Edward Youde	1982	1986
32	Lord Wilson of Tillyorn	1987	1992
33	Chris Patten	1992	1993
34	Sir John Joseph Swaine	1993	1995
35	Andrew Wong	October 11, 1995	June 30, 1997	First non-Governor President of LegCo

After transfer of the sovereignty to People's Republic of China

#	Potrait	Name	Assembly	Took Office	Left Office
President of the PLC
-		Rita Fan	PLC	June 30, 1997	October 1998
President of the LegCo
1		Rita Fan	I	October 1998	October 2000
			II	October 2000	October 2004
			III	October 2004	September 30, 2008
2		Jasper Tsang	IV	October 8, 2008	Incumbent

See also

• Speaker of the House