Franklin Charles Gimson

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Sir Franklin Gimson
Governor of Singapore
In office 1 April 1946 – 15 November 1952
Preceded by	Lord Mountbatten (Military Government)
Succeeded by	John Fearns Nicoll
Born	10 September 1890(1890-09-10) Barrow-on-Soar, Leicestershire, England
Died	13 February 1975 (aged 84) Pickering, North Yorkshire, England

Sir Franklin Charles Gimson, KCMG, KStJ, (Chinese: 詹遜, 10 September 1890 - 13 February 1975) was a British colonial administrator, who briefly served as the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong before the surrender of then Governor Sir Mark Young in 25 December 1941. He established a short-lived provisional government after the liberation of Hong Kong and was later appointed Governor of Singapore in 1946.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Early colonial service 1.3 Governor of Singapore 1.4 Later years 2 Family 3 Honours 3.1 Others 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Gimson was born on 10 September 1890 in Barrow-on-Soar, Leicestershire, England to the Rev. C. K. Gimson. He attended Balliol College, Oxford in his youth and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

[edit] Early colonial service

Gimson was sent to British Ceylon Civil Service as a cadet in November 1914. In the beginning he was attached to the Office of the Naval Intellgence Officer in addition to his own duties. Later on he became an Additional Police Magistrate in Colombo. In 1918 he was sent on military service during the Great War and returned to the colonial administration as an Additional Assistant Colonial Secretary in July 1919. Two months later he was transferred to North Central Province as Office Assistant to the Government Agent.

Gimson was appointed Additional Assistant Colonial Secretary for the second time in March 1920 and was promoted to the post of 4th Assistant Colonial Secretary in September 1920. Subsequently, he was sent to Mannar as Acting Assistant Government Agent in February 1922. In February 1924, he was promote to the Customs Department as Landing Surveyor and acted as Acting Deputy Controller from March to May in 1928. Gimson left the Customs in March 1929 and was appointed as an Additional Assistant to the Director of Education.

Gimson went to the British Ceylon in 1914. He was employed by the colonial government there and became a cadet. In 1937, he was promoted to the post of the Controller of Labour. Few years later, Gimson was sent to Hong Kong and he eventually arrived at Hong Kong on 7 December 1941. Next morning, the Japanese army started the Battle of Hong Kong by an unexpected and sudden invasion and Gimson was appointed Colonial Secretary by then Governor Sir Mark Young on the same day. However, by Christmas Day on 25 December (also known as Black Christmas), the British army lost the battle and Sir Mark decided to surrender. Once the Japanese militants gained full control of Hong Kong, Sir Mark, Gimson and other British subjects were arrested and became prisoners of war. Most of them, including Gimson, were imprisoned in the Stanley Prison during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.

After 3 years and 8 months of Japanese Occupation, the Japanese government finally declared an unconditional surrender on 15 August 1945. Right after the surrender, the representatives of the Allies were on the way, so the Japanese were still responsible for the public order of Hong Kong. But many kinds of regulations were immediately cancelled. On the other hand, the British Ambassador to China, Sir Horace James Seymour-Conway was in Chongqing on the eve of the Japanese surrender. He sent out a message to Gimson, calling him to exercise the sovereign on behalf of the British government. Gimson was chosen to complete the mission because Sir Mark was imprisoned in Shenyang at that time and therefore he was the most senior British official in Hong Kong. Gimson received the order from Sir Horace on 16 August. He then left the prison, took control of Hong Kong from the Japanese, organized all the former colonial officials to form a provisional government and made himself acting governor. On 27 August, Gimson made a further announcement through radio, stating the provisional government had been established.

On 30 August 1945, Rear Admiral Cecil Harcourt and his warships entered Victoria Harbour. Since Harcourt was asked to form a military government by London, Gimson handed the government over to him and the military government was officially formed on 1 September. Rear Admiral Harcourt himself became the head of the military government and Gimson was briefly appointed Lieutenant governor by him. Yet, Harcourt later appointed another set of people in early September.

[edit] Governor of Singapore

Gimson was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Singapore on 1 April 1946. He abolished the military government which was set up by Lord Mountbatten and reinstalled the colonial civil government. In the first 2 years of his governorship, the recovery of economy in Singapore was slow and a large scale of riot broke out in 1947. In June 1947, Singapore became a separate Crown Colony and both Legislative and Executive Council were established. Following in March 1948, Gimson allowed 6 of the 25 seats in the Legislative to be generated by election.

In June 1948, an armed insurgency by communist groups in Malaya — the Malayan Emergency — broke out, and the British imposed harsh measures to control left-wing groups in both Singapore and Malaya; the controversial Internal Security Act, which allowed indefinite detention without trial for persons suspected of being "threats to security", was introduced at this time. Since the left-wing groups were the strongest critics of the colonial system, progress on self-government stalled for several years. The colonial government also tried to prevent contacts between Singaporean Chinese and China, which had just fallen under the rule of the Communist Party of China. Tan Kah Kee, a local businessman and philanthropist, was denied re-entry into Singapore after he made a trip to China.

A second Legislative Council election was held in 1951 with the number of elected seats increased to nine but the colonial administration was still obviously dominant. Gimson retired from colonial services on 15 November 1952

[edit] Later years

Gimson spent his time back in the United Kingdom in retirement. He died in Applegarth, Thornton Dale, Pickering, North Yorkshire on 13 February 1975.[1]

[edit] Family

Gimson married Margaret Dorothy Ward, MBE in 1922 and they had 2 daughters. Margaret was the daughter of Canon Ward.

[edit] Honours

• C.M.G. (1945)
• K.C.M.G. (1946)
• K.St.J

[edit] Others

• Honorary Doctor of Law (presented by the University of Malaya in 1952)
• Member of the Royal Commonwealth Society
• Freeman of the City of Singapore

[edit] See also

• Battle of Hong Kong
• Liberation of Hong Kong
• History of Singapore

[edit] References

Government offices
Preceded by Norman Lockhart Smith	Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong 1941	Vacant Due to Japanese Occupation Title next held by David Mercer MacDougall
Preceded by Hisaichi Tanaka Japanese Governor of Hong Kong	Head of Provisional Colonial Government in Hong Kong 1945	Succeeded by Rear Admiral Cecil Halliday Jepson Harcourt
Preceded by Earl of Mountbatten Head of Military Government	Governor of Singapore 1946-1952	Succeeded by John Fearns Nicoll