Sir John Henry Bremridge (彭勵治爵士), KBE, JP[1] (12 July 1925 – 6 May 1994) was Financial Secretary of Hong Kong from 1981 to 1986. He was the first Financial Secretary who was not a civil servant.
Early life
Bremridge was born in 1925 in Transvaal, in what was then the Union of South Africa to British parents (his father was Godfrey Bremridge) on an orange farm, but left in 1933 for Britain where he grew up.[2]
Career
He served in the British Army (Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own)) from 1943 to 1947, and read law at Oxford before joining Swire in 1949, where he was a senior member of staff in John Swire and Sons (Hong Kong) (Swire Group) and held various positions on corporate boards:[3]
He contributed to the growth restrictions imposed on Dragonair, the second Hong Kong-based airline at that time, by introducing a “one route, one carrier” policy aimed at maintaining Cathay Pacific’s local monopoly. Due to this policy, Dragonair shifted its focus to unserved secondary mainland China markets.[citation needed]
Later life
Bremridge's health suffered after a fall in 1987 and never fully recovered, dying in 1994 in London.[3] He was survived by his wife and children, Anne, Elizabeth, Charles and Henry.[2]
