Pioneering Paulines

Born in Macau, Wong Cheuk Um graduated from St. Paul’s College in 1920. He was most well-known for being one of Swire’s first Chinese managers, which was the company’s highest Chinese rank as it abandoned the comprador system in the 1930s. Wong managed the Taikoo Sugar Refinery in Quarry Bay, at the time one of the largest in the world. After the Second World War, when Hong Kong rationed supplies, Wong was appointed to be in charge of sugar distribution.

Before joining Swire, Wong had been an educator, and he remained interested in furthering the cause. After 1945, as Hong Kong rebuilt itself, a rapid population influx strained the city’s limited number of schools. Together with the old Paulines, Wong co-founded St. Paul’s English Evening School in 1951 (later St. Paul’s Secondary Evening School), which helped children in need throughout its five decades of operation. That same year, he donated towards a new building on the College’s Bonham Road campus, which would be completed in 1953 as the Wong Ming Him Hall, named in memory of his father. The Buddhist Wong Cheuk Um Primary School, founded in 1957, is named in his memory and was donated by his Buddhist elder sister, Wong Fung Ling.

黃焯菴生於澳門，一九二〇年畢業於聖保羅書院。一九三〇年代太古洋行廢除買辦制後，黃氏出任太古洋行華人經理一職，為行內華人最高職位。黃氏曾掌管位於鰂魚涌的太古糖廠，時爲全球最大糖廠之一。戰後黃氏獲政府委任主理香港食糖配給。

黃氏一生着重香港敎育發展，加入太古洋行前曾投身敎育工作。香港戰後人口急增，日校學位供不應求，黃氏遂與聖保羅校友倡議設夜校——後來聖保羅英文夜校於一九五一年成立（即為後來的聖保羅夜中學）。學校營運五十年間獲益學子無數，至二〇〇〇年代停辦。同年見書院遷址後地方不敷應用，黃氏遂捐建書院。一九五三年，以其父命名紀念的黃鳴謙堂落成。此外，其姊黃鳳翎篤信佛敎，於黃氏病逝後捐建佛敎黃焯菴紀念小學以作紀念。