Thomas Alexander Loughlin, manager of The Bank Line (China) Ltd, HK office, 1914
HF: Robert Wilson recently emailed me, “I am engaged in some historical research and looking for information on Thomas Alexander Loughlin who according to the Hong Kong Jurors List, was a sub-manager, then manager of Bank Line from 1915 to 1920. He was also Rowing Captain of Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in 1917. If you have any information, or could suggest other lines of research, I would be most grateful.”
Bank Line Funnel Courtesy: The Ships List
I asked Stephen Davies if he knew anything about Thomas. He did, quite a lot as it happens, including confirmation of his employment at Bank Line (China) Ltd about which we have a very small amount of information in an article linked below.
Over to Stephen: Loughlin’s (1889-1928) is a sad story. He arrived in HK in 1910, aged just 21, to work for the relatively newly formed Bank Line (China) Ltd (Andrew Weir was known for his extremely effective and widespread global agencies and other shipping business links).
In 1914 or 1915, aged 25/26 he was promoted to being manager of the HK Office. In 1917 he was made a member of a government manpower commission, charged with determining what should be done about releasing men in HK of the appropriate age to go off and volunteer to get killed in the British armed forces.
That same year, aged a giddy 28 (!) he was sent by Weir to run the Bank Line’s office in San Francisco. There he stayed, living at 260 California Street, until he died suddenly on 29th August 1928. He was unmarried. His estate in HK ($10,800) was wound up by Mr. T.G. Bennett of Johnson Stokes and Master, in UK (GBP2447) his executor was his brother Dr Dermot Loughlin of Woolston, Southampton, and his executor in the USA (value of estate not known) was Mr. Walter Chick.
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