Sir Arthur Morse KBE JP (Chinese: 摩士) (25
April 1892 – 13 May 1967) was the head of The Hongkong and
Shanghai Banking Corporation during and after World War II. He
was a British banker born in Tipperary in Ireland. He worked in Shanghai, London and Tientsin and finally many years in Hong Kong. He
rebuilt HSBC and did much to revive Hong Kong after the war,
retired in 1953 and moved to London where he died in 1967. Morse
was born in 1892 in Bohercrowe, County Tipperary, Ireland and his father Digby Scott Morse was
a Bank of Ireland agent. and Lizzie Jane Holmes. Morse
attended Foyle College in Derry,
before embarking on his banking career with HSBC. By
1940, Hong Kong was under the threat of Japanese invasion with
the majority of branches in East Asia already in the hands of Japanese. Morse
was sent to London by the then-Chief Manager of the bank Vandeleur Grayburn, to
lead the bank and shift the headquarters to London to avoid the reserves being frozen in New York and San Francisco by
the American authorities in the case of a Japanese take over in Hong Kong. On
16 December 1941, 9 days before Japanese occupation, Morse was appointed as the
Commissioner and General Manager of the bank. During the war, most of the staff
in the East became prisoners of war and
hundreds of them died. The Chief Manager, Sir Vandeleur Grayburn and his
designated successor David C
Edmondston died whilst prisoners in Hong Kong.In 1943 the
London Advisory Committee were empowered to act as a Board of Directors and
he became the Chairman and Chief Manager of the bank.In 1946, he moved the
headquarters of the bank back to Hong Kong and the bank resumed its role as the
central bank in Hong Kong. He involved himself in the revival of the
infrastructure of the city, as well as the bank, his success in the latter task
shown by the improving financial position of the bank starting a trend which
continued after the end of his service in the bank in 1953.His was succeeded
by Michael Turner. Turner had
been interned in Singapore at Changi Prison during the war.