Lord Kadoorie; First Peer in Hong Kong

HONG KONG —  Lord Kadoorie, one of the last of the original taipans behind the growth of Hong Kong, died Wednesday at the age of 94, an official at China Light and Power Co. said.

Lord Kadoorie, honorary chairman of China Light and the founder of the Peninsula Hotel, was a pillar of Hong Kong society and the first peer the British colony produced.

Lord Kadoorie was born less than a year after British colonial authorities signed the 99-year lease on Hong Kong’s New Territories. Its expiration in 1997 will mark the return of Hong Kong to China.

Born in Hong Kong of Jewish parents who had arrived from Baghdad in 1880, Lawrence Kadoorie was educated in Shanghai and Britain. He joined the board of China Light, one of the territory’s two power firms, in 1930 and took over the chairmanship five years later. He retired in December.

A prominent member of Hong Kong’s Jewish community, he was made a member of Britain’s House of Lords in 1981.

The Kadoorie family still has a major stake in China Light, with three family members on the board. The family also controls Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd., the owner of the Peninsula Hotel group, of which son Michael Kadoorie is chairman.