The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. The governor's roles were defined in the Hong Kong Letters Patent and Royal Instructions. Upon the end of British rule and the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, most of the civil functions of this office went to the chief executive of Hong Kong, and military functions went to the commander of the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison.
Governor of Hong Kong
White tropical dress (colonial service, 1st class) of the Gubernatorial uniform worn by Governor Edward Youde on the day he was sworn in and numerous official ceremonies during his tenure, Hong Kong Museum of History.
The Government House was the official residence of the governor from 1855 to 1997.
Image: Alexander Robert Campbell Johnston
Hong Kong was a British colony and later a British Dependent Territory from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the British occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841, during the First Opium War between the British and the Qing dynasty. The Qing had wanted to enforce its prohibition of opium importation within the dynasty that was being exported mostly from British India and was causing widespread addiction among the populace.
Possibly the earliest painting of Hong Kong Island, showing the waterfront settlement which became Victoria City
Spring Garden Lane, 1846
Hong Kong in the 1930s
Japanese troops crossing the border from the mainland, 1941