Succeeded by R. M. Gray | Succeeded by J. M. Price Preceded by J. M. Price Name Emanuel Belilios | |
 | ||
Died 1905, London, United Kingdom | ||
Emanuel Raphael Belilios, CMG, JP (14 November 1837 – 11 November 1905) was a Hong Kong Jewish opium dealer and businessman.
Belilios was born in Calcutta, British India on 14 November 1837. His father was Raphael Emanuel Belilios, member of a Jewish Venetian family. Belilios married Simha Ezra in 1855, and in 1862 he settled in Hong Kong and engaged in trade.
In the 1870s, Belilios was chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited.
He tried to establish relations with the then British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli by proposing a marble and bronze statue of Disraeli, which was declined by the prime minister himself.
He became Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Chairman from 1876 to 1882, appointed to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong in 1881 and as the Council's Senior Unofficial Member from 1892 to 1900.
Belilios gained his reputation as a philanthropist. In the years 1887 and 1888, Belilios gave out two annual scholarships valued at $60, to the students of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese and studying at the Alice Memorial Hospital. In August 1889, Belilios donated $25,000 to set up a girls' government school. The Belilios Public School was renamed from Central School for Girls in honour of Belilios.
Belilios died in London on 11 November 1905.
Family
His son, Raphael Emanuel Belilios (or "Billy"), was a barrister in England. He was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1900 and called to the Bar in 1903. In the same year, Raphael had an arranged marriage to Vera Charlotte Hart, the only daughter of Sir Israel Hart of Holland Park and Lady Charlotte Victoria of Knighton, Leicester Raphael was admitted to the Bar on 16 May 1903. He occupied chambers at Middle Temple from 1904 to 1922.
His great-great-grandson is actor Max Minghella.