Eliot Hall Was Named after Sir Charles Eliot, not after Sir Charles Elliot

Anyone who has studied at the University of Hong Kong will be familiar with Eliot Hall. Opened in 1914, the hall was named after Sir Charles Eliot, a British diplomat and colonial administrator. It was not, however, named after British diplomat and colonial administrator Sir Charles Elliot.

This may sound confusing, but the statement is entirely correct. Sir Charles Elliot (with two "l"s) and Sir Charles Eliot (with one "l") were two different individuals whose legacies are deeply intertwined with Hong Kong, albeit for entirely different reasons.

Sir Charles Elliot (with two "l"s) is the very man to whom we owe the existence of Hong Kong as a bustling metropolis. As British plenipotentiary, he negotiated the cession of Hong Kong Island to Great Britain in 1841 during the First Opium War. Ironically, he was later dismissed from his post precisely because he only secured the island, causing him to fade into relative historical obscurity. So much so that only one place in the world was ever named after him: a small town in South Australia.

In contrast, Sir Charles Eliot (with one "l") became the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong in 1912. He held this position until 1918, when he was appointed High Commissioner and Consul-General in Siberia. Two years later, he became the British Ambassador to Japan, a role he filled until 1926.