Sir David Ronald Holmes (, 26 December 1913 – 14 June 1981) was a British colonial government official who served in Hong Kong from 1938 to 1977.
During the Second World War, he was assigned to the British Army Aid Group where he actively took part in a series of guerilla actions in the Far East to resist the Japanese Army and to rescue prisoners of war from Japanese detention camps. His contribution was recognised by the British government and he was decorated several times. After the war, Holmes played a significant role in the reconstruction of Hong Kong.
In 1954, he was appointed to establish the Resettlement Department, a government department responsible for building resettlement estates for homeless refugees. Later on, he successively served as Director of Urban Services, New Territories' District Commissioner and Director of Commerce and Industry.
In 1966, Holmes replaced John Crichton McDougall as Secretary for Chinese Affairs; not long after, the 1967 Leftist Riots broke out. During the riots, he was noted for taking control of the situation as acting-Colonial Secretary and adopting a hard-line policy towards the Communists.
In 1969, Holmes took up the post of Secretary for Home Affairs, serving in that role until 1971. He then became chairman of the Public Service Commission until 1977 when he left Hong Kong.
During Holmes' time with the government of Hong Kong, he was appointed an official member of the Urban Council, Legislative Council and Executive Council, serving in the Legislative Council for a decade in total. For his public service to Hong Kong, he was knighted in 1973.
Biography
Early years
Holmes was born on 26 December 1913 in the United Kingdom. His parents were Louis James Holmes and Emily Sutcliffe of Brighouse, West Yorkshire. In his youth, he studied at Bradford Grammar School and later graduated from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He once served as an Officer Cadet in the Senior Division of the Cambridge University Contingent and was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant in 1935. After the promotion, he briefly served in the Infantry Unit of the Contingent but retired in October 1936. In 1938, Holmes was employed by the government of Hong Kong as a cadet. Prior to the war, he was the Assistant Secretary for Chinese Affairs and learned to speak fluent Cantonese.
In December 1941, the Pacific War broke out and the Japanese Army initiated an unexpected invasion of Hong Kong. During the Battle of Hong Kong, Holmes fought with the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong but was soon transferred to the Special Operations Executive (SOE). His primary duty was to attack the Japanese army from the rear. Following the surrender of Hong Kong by Governor Sir Mark Young on 25 December, Holmes fled to mainland China, thus evading capture by Japanese troops. His only brother, Captain Leslie Benjamin Holmes (1905–1941) of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, was killed in action in Hong Kong on 19 December. He died at the age of 36 and left his widow, Marguerite Julia Holmes, of Ramsbury, Wiltshire. Today, his grave can still be found in the Stanley Military Cemetery."LESLIE BENJAMIN HOLMES", The Holmes Family History Society. Retrieved 15 February 2009.
British Army Aid Group
After fleeing from Hong Kong, Holmes reached Chongqing in early 1942 to unite with British delegates in China. Later on, he was ordered to drive (later Sir) John Keswick, the First Secretary of the British Consulate-General in Chongqing, and the consulate's attaché, Brigadier Gordon Edward Grimsdale to Shaoguan, Guangdong for a special mission to discuss with General Yu Hanmou, the Chinese Commander-in-Chief of the Seventh War Zone about the feasibility of establishing a British Army Aid Group to resist the Japanese invasion on a joint basis. Throughout the negotiation, Holmes worked as the translator for the British.Paul Tsui, Paul Tsui's Memoirs Chapter 12. Shortly afterwards, Colonel (later Sir) Lindsay Ride, a prisoner of war from a Japanese concentration camp in Hong Kong, successfully made his escape and arrived at Chongqing. As a result, Ride officially formed the British Army Aid Group in July 1942. Both Holmes and Paul Tsui (), a close friend Holmes had met in Shaoguan, joined the group in November and were immediately sent to station in Dong River, Huizhou.
In Huiyang, Holmes was under the command of Colonel (later Sir) Douglas Clague. He was assigned to deal with external affairs and to co-operate closely with the guerillas of the East River Column (). With the help from the guerillas, Holmes had organised a number of rescue plans trying to save the prisoners of war from the Japanese concentration camps and had conducted espionage in the Japanese-occupied region. According to the recollection of Paui Tsui, Holmes and his companions once secretly entered Hong Kong and reached the foot of Lion Rock. From the foot of the mountain, he used binoculars to spy the concentration camp far away in To Kwa Wan regardless the potential danger of being discovered by the Japanese. Fortunately, although Holmes was a Westerner, the Japanese had never recognised that the fluent Cantonese speaker was in fact a British. Tsui explained the reason was because Holmes was not huge physically and with the disguise of wearing bamboo hat and grey linen clothing, he just looked the same as a common Chinese farmer. His bravery was appreciated by the British government that he was awarded a Military Cross in early 1943 and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) of the Military Division a few months later. It was rare at that time to be decorated twice in a single year.
In 1944, Holmes was promoted to the rank of Major and was responsible for supervising the frontier post in Huizhou. By then Holmes had become a very good friend of Tsui. On one occasion, he even sent his only suit to Tsui for the use in Tsui's wedding. After the war, under the recommendation of Holmes, Tsui further became the first ethnic Chinese to be appointed a cadet and followed Holmes in the government of Hong Kong. In the end of 1944, Holmes applied for leave of absence and travelled to Australia. He remained in there until the end of the war.
Postwar years In August 1945, the Second World War finally ended by the unconditional surrender of Japan. After the liberation, Holmes was immediately summoned back to Hong Kong in September and to serve in the provisional military government.〈徐家祥悼何禮文爵士〉，《華僑日報》第三張第一頁，1981年6月21日。 Although the military government was headed by Vice Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt, all the civil affairs were in charge by David Mercer Macdougall, the Chief Civil Affairs Officer dispatched from London, and Claude Bramall Burgess, a government cadet who was imprisoned by the Japanese during the war. Besides, Holmes and his former colleague Edmund Brinsley Teesdale were responsible for all the matters in the provisional Colonial Secretariat. To assist him in dealing with the affairs in New Territories, Holmes also appointed Paul Tsui as the Assistant District Officer, New Territories.
When the provisional military government ceased to function in May 1946, Hong Kong re-established its own civil government. In the early postwar years, Holmes continued to serve in the Colonial Secretariat and was the Deputy Clerk of both the Legislative and Executive Councils from 1946 to 1947. After that, he was sent to the Imperial Defence College in London by the government for advanced study.Steve Tsang, Governing Hong Kong: Administrative Officers from the Nineteenth Century to the Handover to China, 1862–1997, I.B.Tauris, 2007, pp. 79 – 81. Upon returning to Hong Kong, he rejoined the government and worked in different capacities including the Deputy Secretary for Chinese Affairs. In July 1951, he became the acting Social Welfare Officer of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs while the holder of the position, John McDouall was absent. When McDouall resumed in 1952, Holmes was appointed to different posts including the Clerk of the Executive and Legislative Councils.〈副華民司何禮文，暫代社會局長〉，《工商日報》第五頁，1951年7月3日。
In December 1953, a major fire destroyed the slum area in Shek Kip Mei and more than 50,000 refugees were made homeless. After the disaster, then Governor Sir Alexander Grantham ordered Holmes to establish the Resettlement Department and appointed him as the Deputy Colonial Secretary and the first Commissioner of Resettlement. To resettle the homeless refugees in a short period of time, he took the lead to construct a number of resettlement estates on the burnt ground in Shek Kip Mei and in its neighbouring area. Some of the notable examples included Shek Kip Mei Estate and Tai Hang Tung Estate.〈何禮文爵士在希病世〉，《工商日報》第八頁，1981年6月16日。 Since the creation of the Resettlement Department, constructing public housing estate for resettling the poor people had become one of the primary policy goals set by the government in postwar Hong Kong. On the other hand, Holmes was also an official member of the Urban Council during his tenure as the Commissioner of Resettlement. In October 1955, when he succeeded the retired Harold Giles Richards as the Director of Urban Services, he stepped down from the Resettlement Department but was also appointed official member of the legislative council. His original post of the Commissioner of Resettlement was succeeded by Arthur Walton.〈市政局主席利澤時退休，由何禮文繼任〉，《工商日報》第五頁，1955年10月26日。 During his tenure as the Director of Urban Services, Holmes witnessed the expansion of the Council that the number of unofficial members was increased to eight in 1956. It was the first time in history that unofficial member occupied half of the seats in the council. However, the demand on further reform was not satisfied by the expansion, and therefore the relationship between the unofficial members and the government became worsening under his term of office.